The visitors were held to just 7 points in the third period
Gran Canaria’s third-quarter defense provided confidence in win over Trento
Despite bringing in nine new players over the summer, Dolomiti Energia Trento got off to a great start away at Dreamland Gran Canaria on Tuesday night. The visitors produced a great offensive display in the first half, took the hosts by surprise and secured a 45-49 lead heading into the second half.
“We need to do a much better job on defense,” Gran Canaria center Mike Tobey said at the break. “Our defense was terrible in the first half, so we gotta really pick it up in the second half if we want to have a chance to win this game.”
Game Videos
And that’s exactly what head coach Jaka Lakovic’s players did from the off in the second half.
Gran Canaria tightened up its defense, with Trento scoring just 2 points in the first 5 minutes of the third quarter. In fact, the hosts kept a Trento offense that scored 22 and 27 points in the first and second quarters, respectively, to just 7 points in the third and took a 60-56 lead into the closing quarter.
Trento scored 32 points after the break, mainly thanks to an extraordinary Jordan Ford, who netted half of his team’s points in the second half and finished the game with 32 points, recording 11-for-11 on two pointers and 3-for-4 from beyond the arc.
“We are happy to start the season with a win,” Lakovic told EuroLeague TV after the clash. “I think that our approach on defense in the third quarter was decisive. We took control of the momentum of the game and took it to the fourth quarter, having more confidence in our game.”
Gran Canaria recorded 5 steals in the second half, with its players producing numerous deflections on defense that didn’t allow Trento to circulate the ball as smoothly as it did before the break and prevented the guests from finding their rhythm on offense.
“We responded better in the second half,” Tobey, who netted a team-high 20 points, said after the game. “In the first half, our defense was not what it needed to be, but I think that we showed character and we responded, doing a much better job in the second half. Even though we missed a bunch of shots that we’d probably make later on, the defense was what won us the game in the second half and we need to keep this mentality going forward.”
Shifting the energy from defense to offense, Gran Canaria outscored Trento 39-32 in the second half to clinch a hard-fought victory on home soil.
The Spanish side will travel to Montenegro next week, where it will face Buducnost VOLI Podgorica in their first road game of the season. Should they manage to emulate their third-quarter defense at Moraca, Gran Canaria will have little to fear in its bid to double its wins next Wednesday.