This is how Coach Peppe Poeta commented on the match against Trento: “I’m very happy with this victory. Preparing for a match less than 48 hours before the trip to Vitoria was difficult, doing it with a reduced rotation, using the same players was even more difficult. The boys played with great heart and a sense of urgency in the last four minutes in which they conceded only five points to Trento. The reaction, emotionally, when we went down was not easy. With Tortona and Trapani we had lost similar matches. This gives me confidence, but without energy we cannot defend. We have had in the last five minutes, not out of cynicism, but out of the desire to react. Now we face one game at a time: we know that the next four at home are terrible, and there will be other difficult ones after that, but the right thing is to think about one game at a time. I want to underline the performance of those who scored less, like Shields, Ricci, against a team that played well and is healthy, with clear ideas. We only had Ellis, with foul problems, but he gave away ten assists and gave us pace, he was super.”
On Brown’s condition: “We’re navigating by sight. He’s had muscular problems, now he also has this shoulder problem which isn’t serious but limits him. Basically, he’s a pre-season player with all the typical pre-season problems. Let’s see how he feels too.”
On the last defensive possession: “I didn’t want to spend the foul too soon because there were 14 seconds left and I didn’t want to end up in the free throw lottery. I asked to spend it after a few seconds if they were far from the arc to prevent them from scoring three free throws. In the end we were fine with forcing them to go inside. But the ball remained around the arc and then we were good at defending all the way. If they had then scored we would have been… naive. But that’s how it works.”