The sensational finale, however, was not sensational. Florence’s smartass pulled Steel out of the hole

In 2018, he won the Polish championship with Anwil Włocławek, and in 2019 he repeated this success. In 2020, he won the Polish Cup with the team from Włocławek, and in 2021 – the first championship in the club’s history with Stal Ostrów Wlkp. The year 2022 will also be fruitful for Igor Milicic – his Stal Puchar Polski is already there, and in a few months he will be a favorite for the championship.

But after 12 minutes of the final, Milicić was very nervous. His team was losing until 12:28 – the team from Ostrów was 0/10 for three and at times they were easily beaten by the hosts, who played with great energy. You could rub your eyes with amazement, because Start is a team that closes the league table with the balance of 4-15. The Lublin players found themselves in the tournament for the Polish Cup only because they played the role of the host. In the quarter-finals, after a throw in the last second of extra-time, they eliminated Zastal Zielona Góra, in the semi-finals they defeated King Szczecin, but nobody believed that they would scare the Polish champions in the final.

Meanwhile, from the beginning of the final, Start was playing great. Coach Tane Spasev clearly showed his players where to look for holes in Steel’s defense, and they found them perfectly. Mateusz Kostrzewski, a former Stal player who won the cup with the team from Ostrów three years earlier and was the MVP of the final, was especially shining. Now, in the colors of Start, he had 12 points by the break.

Except Steel had James Florence.

James’s 14 points, Andersson’s two key threes

The 33-year-old American is one of the biggest stars of the league in recent years – two-time Polish champion, MVP of the season and the final, and the winner of the cup. His greatest strengths are long throw, experience and cunning – and it is all these elements that Florence showed in a difficult moment for Stal. Between the 13th and the 20th minute of the Sunday finals, the American scored as many as 14 points and it was largely thanks to him that Stal got closer to the Start – by the break the Lublin players were only leading 41:34.

After switching sides, Start held on for a few more minutes, but was weakening. Fouls multiplied, with time there was a lack of strength, the wider team and Stal’s advantage in terms of talent in every position began to be more and more visible. The inhabitants of Ostrow also started to score in three and in the 29th minute they were already in the lead thanks to Denzel Andersson. The Swede hit two three-pointers in a row, including one with a foul and after his four-point action it was 57:53 for Stal.

The start could not recover from these blows for a long time, and the inhabitants of Ostrów were spun from action to action. At the turn of the third and fourth quarter, the Polish champions won 29: 4! From 44:53 it became 73:57 – The start fought to the end and reduced the losses, so ultimately the team from Ostrów did not win very high, 83:76.

Steel was able to limit the playmaking rivals

The tournament in Lublin was largely a tournament of playmakers – Florence played brilliantly at times, scoring an average of 17.6 points, he had a total of 13/33 for three, and he usually scored in the most important moments – in the semi-final with Silesia he threw as many as 28 points. But great matches were also played by Jakub Schenk (King Szczecin), Marek Klassen (Czarni Słupsk), Travis Trice (Śląsk Wrocław) and Mike Scott (Start).

But, interestingly, Milicić found a way to limit the playmakers. In the quarter-finals, Roko Rogić from Twardych Pierników Toruń scored only four points, who throws an average of 14.3 in the league, and he had only 1/7 of the game against Stal. In the semi-finals he did not play against Stal Trice – the quarter-finals of Silesia in the quarter-finals against Czarni came out sensational, he added nine assists to 28 points. Against Stal – he threw 10 (2/7 from the game) and the lack of points was not sweetened by another nine assists.

In the final, the players from Ostrów could not get started, but Scott. The setter of the Start in the first two matches of the tournament threw 21 and 28 points with good performance, but against Stal he scored only 11. He had a weak 4/13 of the game, little improved by seven assists.

The joint achievements of Rogić, Trice and Scott in matches with Ostrovians are 25 points, 24 assists and a paltry 7/27 from the game. I must admit – Steel was able to limit them.

Dunk contest won in quarter-finals

On the other hand, the traditional dunks and threes tournaments held between the semi-finals on Saturday were limited in terms of attractiveness. The first one was won by James Eads from Twardych Pierników Toruń, but his dunk from the quarter-finals with Stalowa left a much better impression than the competition trials. The US winger launched a counter and loaded the ball into a basket over Denzel Anderson, 204 cm tall, the league’s top blockers. In a split second, the American and the Swede fought a battle over the rim – the first fought for points, the second for the block, ultimately Eads triumphed.

In the contest itself, Eads made some pretty good attempts, but they didn’t kidnap anyone. Ahmed Hill from HydroTrucka Radom had better ideas, Josh Sharma from Trefl Sopot presented nicer dunks. But both have spoiled too many attempts to win the competition. Eads, who was the most regular, won.

Luke Petrasek from Anwil Włocławek triumphed in three of them. In the first round, the American scored 16 points, in the final he scored 17. In the decisive game, Petrasek defeated Beau Beach (Czarni Słupsk) and Andrzej Pluta (Astoria Bydgoszcz), who had 14 points each.

The latter could only dream of such results as his father, a nine-time winner of the three-point competition, had screwed up years ago. In 2010, during the Star Match in Lublin, Pluta senior scored 26 points in the qualifying rounds, and in the finals – 20. This year’s tournament to the level of the Pluta champion definitely did not grow up.

Staff review before the tie with Estonia

The tournament for the Polish Cup was also the introduction to the week with the Polish national team, which will face Estonia in the qualifying rounds of the world championship. After the revolution of the new coach, Igor Milicic, the Polish team started this elimination badly, with defeats in Israel and with Germany. Now they have to look for victories in meetings with Estonia (balance 1-1) – on Friday, February 25, Poles will play in Tallinn, three days later, a rematch in Lublin.

In the Globus Milicić Hall, six of the players appointed to the team could see – four of them presented themselves very well. First, he delighted the aforementioned Schenk, who set fire to his team Kinga Szczecin with typical energy and gave an impulse for an impressive chase in the quarter-finals with Anwil. King was already losing by 26 points, but led to extra time – ultimately won by 98:94, and Schenk scored 21 points in this match and he had eight assists, and although he did not shine so much in the semi-final with Start (70:77) – he finished the match with nine points and four assists – he confirmed that he is a leading Polish quarterback and the representation will rely on him.

The team from Silesia also performed well – Aleksander Dziewa, under the basket, scored 12 points with Twardymi Pierniki, and then he fought very well in the semi-finals with Stal. He dropped 23 points – he had 7/10 in play and 8/8 in free. Dziewa is an outstanding player in the Polish backyard, it’s time to break through in the national team. It is similar with Jakub Karolak – the Silesian thrower scored nine points in the quarter-finals, and 19 in the semi-finals. It is worth emphasizing his good effectiveness for three – in Lublin, where he comes from, Karolak scored six out of 12 long-distance shots.

And finally Jakub Garbacz, who was chosen by the organizers of the tournament in Lublin, flashed. It can be debated whether Florence was not a more important player of Stal, but the league authorities are known for the fact that they like to promote Poles to the most important awards. There is no doubt, however, that Garbacz was one of the most important Stal players throughout the tournament.

The shooter, whom Milicić watches in Ostrów Wlkp. On a daily basis, scored 16, seven and 20 points in three matches. In three games, Garbacz had 13/27 from the game, including 9/20 for three. These numbers may be appealing in view of the matches of the national team, in which the Stal sniper recently missed the power.