A 31-point fourth quarter explosion saved the day for Olimpia and allowed the home winning streak in the Italian league to reach the respectable number of 23, starting last season. Olimpia defeated Brescia 78-77 after going down by 11 at the end of the third period in a game that featured 18 lead changes and 16 times the teams were tied. Olimpia struggled at shooting the ball from the perimeter, never hit a three in the first half and only one across the first three quarters. The fourth was a completely different story with six threes in a row, with Melli and Voigtmann and Kevin Pangos too. A 11-0 run to start the period determined the first tie after a long time but Olimpia didn’t stop there and got a 8-point right lead that looked decisive. However some mistakes, a missed lay-up, a missed free-throw and two consecutive threes allowed, again a turnover allowed Brescia to keep the game close to the end. Nicolò Melli who had a 12-point fourth quarter saved the game with a thunderous block on Kenny Gabriel potentially winning reverse lay-up.

Olimpia started Tommy Baldasso at the point since Naz Mitrou-Long is out with a injury and Kevin Pangos came back with a 14-minute limit. Then Baldasso got injured himself at the right ankle and had to leave the game in the first quarter. It was a huge blow. “When your starting point man is just back with minute restriction, the other one is out and third got injured early, we’ll, this is not the perfect way to develop your game. I’m happy we found a way to win and to play a very good fourth quarter when we stopped thinking too much,” Coach Messina said. Pangos was crucial too. After two inconsistent appearances early in the game, when he looked rusty at best, Pangos took control in the fourth with eight consecutive points. Ha made a corner three, a step back three and a pull-up mid-range jumper. He led the comeback along Melli and Voigtmann. “We stretched the floor with the bigs and created spaces for Kevin to operate,” Messina pointed out. The fourth quarter defense anchored by Melli and with Stefano Tonut very solid in the backcourt helped a lot too, while Devon Hall and Billy Baron and also Paul Biligha kept Olimpia in the game during the first half. “We got depressed in the third when things weren’t going our way and this is not good because their run almost cost us the game. However we played a very promising fourth quarter. Hopefully we can find some consistency and get Shavon Shields back soon,” Messina closed.