One win in their previous 13 European Cup games, a home league defeat to MKS Dąbrowa Górnicza in their last game and ongoing personnel problems did not fill Schlaskie fans with optimism ahead of the clash with their German rivals.
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However, the people of Wroclaw did not give up their weapons and from the beginning fought on equal terms with the Ulm team. In the last action of the first quarter, Aleksandr Wisniewski scored from a distance and the Polish runners-up took a 21:19 lead.
The second version performed by “Kosinierzi” was even better. At 25:24, Canadian Marek Klassen made a three-pointer, then Hasani Gravett did the same, and Shlaski led 31:24.
However, coach Jacek Winnik's team really warmed up the fans at the end of this part of the match. When the score was 44:37, the Wroclaw keeper called a timeout. The instructions proved to be accurate as Schlask went on an 8-0 run with two and a half minutes remaining to take a 52-37 lead into the half.
From the beginning of the third quarter, the visitors started to chase and after four minutes of the game they were behind by only six points (50:56). Coach Winnicki kept calm, did not interrupt the game and his players took the situation by themselves.
At 63:56 Mateusz Zebski first tried, and a little later Dusan Miletic and the score was 68:56.
Wroclaw started the last part of the match with a score of 70:62, and Klassen scored from behind the 6.75 m line immediately after the game resumed. However, the following segments performed by Shlaski were not very good, and after another loss and easy points of the opponents, Vinnicki asked for a break (76:71).
After the restart of the game, the next two actions belonged to Miletic, who had a good game (19 points, four rebounds, three assists) and Slaski jumped to 82:71. It was the decisive moment of the match. It is true that later the visitors from Ulm got closer to six points (78:84), but the Wroclaws did not allow them to go further.
When Klassen hit another successful 3-pointer to make it 93-86 with a little over a hundred seconds left, the Schlaski fans started celebrating. The hosts won 100:88 and this was the second victory of Wroclaw in the European Cup.
Six of the nine players from Shlaski finished the match with double-digit points.
In the next round, on January 16, the Wroclaw team will face Dolomiti Trento as a guest.
Match summary Śląsk Wrocław – Ratiopharm Ulm:
Śląsk Wrocław – Ratiopharm Ulm 100:88 (21:19, 31:18, 18:25, 30:26).
Slask Wroclaw: Dusan Miletic 19, Arciom Parachuski 14, Marek Klassen 13, Mateusz Zebski 13, Andrzej Vojnalovic 13, Hasan Gravett 12, Kendall McCullum 9, Aleksandar Wisniewski 4, Michal Sitnik 3;
Ratiopharm Ulm: Kareem Jallow 22, Thomas Klepeis 15, Trevion Williams 12, Lije Figueroa 14, Georginio de Paula 11, Pacoma Dadiet 6, Juan Nunes 5, Tobias Jensen 3, Noah Esengue 0, Nicholas Bretzel 0.
BS, PAP