Unicaja takes comfortable home win against Trento

Unicaja Malaga bounced back from its last defeat by dominating Dolomiti Energia Trento, 93-74, to remain atop of the 7DAYS Eurocup Group D standings at 4-1. Trento dropped to 2-3 with its first road loss. The hosts broke the game in the early going and finished the first quarter with an 18-point lead to never look back. Josh Adams registered a Eurocup career-high 21 points on 4-of-7 three-point shooting and added 5 assists to lead the winners. Deon Thompson, Melvin Ejim and Axel Toupane posted 11 apiece, followed by Aleksa Avramovic with 10 points of his own for Unicaja. Alessandro Gentile recorded 18 points as the top scorer for Trento, while Justin Knox chipped in 14 points and Aaron Craft had 10 points, 6 assists and 4 steals in defeat.

Unicaja started the game at full-speed boosted by Adams and Thompson, who combined for 10 points in a 12-2 run in the early going. The hosts kept a safe double-digit margin throughout the first quarter, extending it to 28-10 thanks to a late 8-0 run behind 6 points of Avramovic. Jaime Fernandez made it a 20-point game right after the second quarter started, but Knox came to the rescue for the visitors and scored 10 points on a 5-16 run to bring his team within 35-26 midway through the second quarter. Adams and Melvin Ejim showed up from deep with back-to-back triples, though, and returned a comfortable margin for the hosts, 44-28, with 2 minutes to go in the half. Gentile took over and posted the following 6 points for Trento, but it wasn’t enough to threaten Unicaja’s 48-34 halftime lead. Thompson opened fire in the third, followed by a three by Adam Waczynski to boost the hosts again, 53-34, while another triple by Adams and an inside basket by Frank Elegar allowed Unicaja to surpass the 20-point barrier, 63-42. With only Gentile and Knox regularly contributing in offense Trento seemed powerless against the hosts, who entered the last quarter with a reduced, but still unaffordable difference, 69-53. With the outcome in no doubt, Unicaja reached a game-high 25-point margin, 90-65, good enough for coach Casimiro to send 2002-born point-guard Pablo Sánchez to take the court with 4 minutes to go and make his European debut.

The eleventh

Unicaja Malaga returned to its home court, where it had won its last 10 EuroCup regular-season games. Trento became the 11th victim of the Spaniards, who took advantage of a strong first-quarter performance to give another win to their fans.

Playing time for everyone

Coach Luis Casimiro had one of the more comfortable nights so far this season and took advantage of it to grant some playing time to all his players including Pablo Sanchez, who made his European debut at the age of 16.

Dead on arrival

Trento was behind from the very beginning. Right after Aaron Craft tied it 2-2 after 2 minutes, Unicaja turned the game into a nightmare for the visitors, who allowed a 10-2 run and trailed as much as by 25 points later in the game

Next games

In Round 6 next week, Dolomiti Energia Trento will play on the road again, this time against Galatasary Doga Sigorta (4-1) in Istanbul. The day after Unicaja will visit Podgorica to face last-placed Buducnost VOLI (0-5).