After Venice, Trento: Varese after Vertemati, which is now also Varese after Gentile, collects four points as a key to salvation against two opponents that are prohibitive on paper but not on the pitch, where the technical factor and the gap in the standings are eliminated to make room for the hunger for rebirth that marks the new Roijakkers era.
And after the exploit against the Venetians, taken with Gentile on the bench in his last match in red and white, also that of Trento arrives in the sign of a balance being redefined.
Behind the 84-90 there are not only the 31 points of a deadly Marcus Keene, as the scoresheet might mockingly suggest. Behind the second consecutive victory of Openjobmetis there is above all the imprint of the group that changes under the eyes of its new guide, who started by resetting all the values under “hierarchies“. Game by deploying the nineteen year old Librizzi in the quintet, then giving ample space to the other very young, Virginio and Caruso, and gradually inserting the new acquisition Reyes, author of a debut to be framed with 17 points and 7 rebounds that have revealed so much of his qualities (first of all the reasoned management of possessions, without forcing, shooting accuracy, physique).
The staff still incomplete and the trust still to be gained, as if it were day zero. This, perhaps, paradoxically, the extra weapon that allowed the team to hold up point to point against the fourth force of the championship, for forty minutes, relying on the offensive talent of the 45, no doubt, but also putting into practice the first dictates of the Dutch coach, such as the defensive pressure to force the turnovers of the opponents, who at least in this phase – with the team still orphaned by Egbunu’s replacement – helps to cope with the absence of the center; and then on the opposite side of the field, each time fishing from a range of solutions, without getting stuck on a single point of reference: three, in this sense, the players in double figures, the aforementioned Keene and Reyes, to which Beane is added (15 points).
Also noteworthy is the try to rebound, with twenty balls won under the opponent’s basket, and as many as 22 points earned from second chances: pure gold, a decisive factor in closing the games in the final part of the fourth period. Something new, like the absence of turnovers in two crucial moments of the match: the second quarter – closed in perfect equality – and the last. It is the Roijakkers effect, the new beginning effect. And as a start it couldn’t have been better.
DOLOMITI ENERGIA TRENTINO-BASKETBALL OPENJOBMETIS VARESE: 84-90
Dolomiti Energia Trentino: Bradford 3, Williams 18, Reynolds 12, Gaye ne, Conti 3, Morina ne, Zangheri ne, Flaccadori 23, Saunders 15, Mezzanotte 7, Ladurner 2, Caroline 1. Coach: Emanuele Molin.
Openjobmetis Varese basketball: Beane 15, Sorokas 6, De Nicolao, Vene 8, Reyes 17, Librizzi, Virginio 2, Ferrero 3, Caruso 8, Keene 31, Cane ne. Coach: Johan Roijakkers.
Referees: Lanzarini – Near – Borgo.
Partials: 23-24; 19-18; 22-22; 20-26. Progressives: 23-24; 42-42; 64-64; 84-90.
Notes – T3: 6/20 Trento, 9/27 Varese; T2: 24/42 Trento, 24/50 Varese; TL: 18/28 Trento, 15/20 Varese. Rebounds: 38 Trento (Williams 11), 45 Varese (Reyes 7); Assist: 16 Trento (Flaccadori 5), 14 Varese (De Nicolao 4).
(Cover photo, Alberto Ossola)
