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As last year, Anwil will rely on their strong defense

During preseason the team from Wloclawek won over Asseco 74-60, and in the first championship round they allowed Slask to score only 61 points. It's obvious coach Bogicevic will not change his successful tactics

Anwil started their Polish basketball league season in a game against Slask. This ought to have been a pretty difficulty away game for the team from Wloclawek. It was a regional derby, and the home team was extremely motivated since they were playing in the second division last year. However, Anwil demonstrated their greatest strength - good defense. In the first quarter they allowed their opponent to score only 6 points, created a 14-point advantage and practically solved the game. They limited Slask to to only 15 percent shot efficiency from the 3-point range and only 33.3 percent from the floor. They allowed them to score 61 points in total.

- The main thing we had to do was to stop their point guard Skibniewski. He is a true play maker and can be very dangerous if you let him.  Our good defense against their pick and roll was the key. We stuck to the plan and it was a lot easier to play - said coach Milija Bogicevic.

As for the Anwil offense, the lion’s share of the work was done by the shooting guard Paul Graham. He joined the team pretty late, but obviously has no problem with adjusting. He scored 21 points. The reinforcements from Serbia also performed well. Dusan Katinic as PG scored 11 points and had 5 assists, and center Danilo Mijatovic also scored 11.
  
The only thing coach Bogicevic might be concerned about is their rebound. Anwil do not have too many tall players in their paint, and this could be a problem. In Wroclaw they mostly relied on their starting five. They don’t have a lot of players on the bench, especially since the injury of an important shooting guard  Pamula. He will be out for a long time so Anwil brought a Lithuanian Deividas Dulkys who will probably debut today. 

- I witnessed the atmosphere your supporters created in Wroclaw so I can’t wait to start playing - said the Lithuanian, who is on loan from Lietuvos Rytas.

Coach Bogicevic described their today’s opponent:

- We spent a lot of time analyzing Asseco’s performance. Not only because this is our first game at home and we wish to win, but because Asseco play extremely wise and consistently. I believe this will be a tough game which will be decided by nuances. The guests have the advantage of playing under no pressure, and it will be more difficulty for us than the game against Slask.

Yes, the visiting team from Gdynia are indeed under no pressure. The team has been completely rejuvenated during the summer. All the best players have left, and now they are an extremely young team, of whom no one expects too much. But in their first round, Asseco surprised many with their win over the significantly stronger Koszalin (at least on paper). Their excellent performance in the fourth quarter and the fact they limited their opponent to only 29 points in the second half decided the game. This is not surprising since it is well known coach David Dedek deems defense to be the most important segment in the game.

- We were courageous and determined. This is the main reason we won. Our performance was flawless. The fact that we had a lot of turnovers is a consequence of our youth. We have a lot of inexperienced players who are still learning how to play professional basketball - said the Slovenian expert. 

The Asseco’s starting five against Koszalin consisted of exclusively Polish players, but true hero of the day was the American A.J. Walton. The shooting guard scored 23 points, which is a record in the club’s history for a championship debut.

Today against Anwil the visiting team will again have to play on a high level, since they are playing against a much more difficult opponent than in the first round. The home team play an extremely aggressive defense and the real question is how will the mostly inexperienced Asseco players manage. They failed during the preseason, when they lost to Anwil rather convincingly (60-74).  

The 144,5 points margin is pretty low, but Anwil and Asseco are typical defensively oriented teams who continued with their performances from last season. The home team allowed 61 points against Slask away, and that was an offensive team they were up against. Asecco changed their entire squad during the summer, they haven't got too many options up front, but their coach is Slovenian David Dedek who will use the same recipe he used in Start last season. This will not be attractive basketball. They allowed 65 against Koszalin in the first round. Anwil beat Asseco in the pre-season 74-60. You could already see then that the defense will be their dominant style of play, even though it was a preparation game.