Le Mans is a race to rediscover your smile: Baglietto makes its home debut in the BKT EuroCup.
Among the many firsts marking Derthona Basket's start to the BKT EuroCup season, the time has come for their home debut in the European competition. For the second matchday of Group A of the regular season, tomorrow at 19:30 p.m., Baglietto Derthona Tortona hosts Le Mans Sarthe at the Nova Arena. This French team is also making its first appearance in the EuroCup and is coming off a season in which they reached three domestic finals—the Coupe de France, the Supercoupe, and the Leaders Cup—in addition to reaching the Champions League Top 16 and finishing sixth in the regular season of the French top flight, finishing in the first round of the playoffs.
The match will be broadcast live on Sky Sport Arena and streamed on Now.
How do the two teams arrive?
Derthona are eager for redemption, coming off two losses of varying severity: a disappointing European debut at Riga Zelli, where they conceded an 86-84 basket at the buzzer, and a more dramatic loss last Sunday at PalaTiziano against home team BC Roma (108-70). The Bianconeri Lions will also be without the injured Paul Eboua and Edoardo Di Meo against Le Mans, forced to postpone their official season debuts. The rest of the squad will need to make an effort to show progress on defense and in protecting their own basket, including on rebounds.
Le Mans, which boasts five national titles (the last in 2018), four French Cups, and four Leaders' Cups, shares the same win-loss record as Derthona. In the league, they won 97-103 away in overtime at Gravelines-Dunkerque and their last home loss was against Euroleague team Paris Basketball, who won 103-101 in a thrilling game. In their EuroCup debut, Guillaume Vizade's team also lost at home to one of the heavy favorites to win the group, Aris Thessaloniki, who prevailed 87-74 in the city of the 24 Hours of Car racing, building a gap in the second half. In all three games, the French team's leading scorer, Carlos Stewart, a young point guard who averaged 15.1 points in Varese last year, stood out. The 23-year-old American scored 29 points in both LNB games, where he is the top scorer, and 17 in the loss to the Greeks. He was supported by another youngster, French forward Melvin Ajinca, Le Mans' second-leading scorer with 18.5 points per game in France. Fellow American Bastienne Grasshoff, a 2007-born point guard who is playing as the third fiddle, has also been effective, averaging 28 points in his first two LNB games and 16 with Aris. Already absent from the last two matches, the presence of former pivot TaShawn Thomas, a one-year deal with Derthona in 2023-24, remains doubtful due to a physical problem. His personal best performance was 23 points with a 30 rating in a sprint defeat at the Forum against Milan.
The statements
Coach Mario Fioretti: "We're coming off a tough game in Rome, and we can't wait to get back on the court to be as competitive as we always have been. Furthermore, this is our club's historic home debut in the EuroCup, and that will give us extra motivation. We're playing against a very athletic team whose main strengths are aggressive defense and open court play. They definitely have Carlos Stewart as their technical leader, and around him are a slew of players capable of posing threats in a variety of ways. We should be solid on both ends of the court for the entire 40 minutes."
Guard Giordano Bortolani: " We all need to defend better, working together. This is absolutely essential. We haven't had great defensive performances since the start of the season; we've conceded too many points. Up front, we'll need to be a little more organized in certain situations, in our execution of plays. It's also worth noting that the last game in Rome wasn't our best day overall, but with this schedule, we're fortunate to be playing early and can already turn things around."
