After a dominating first half during which Olimpia led by as many as 20 points and kept a 19-point margin going into the locker room, the game became much more complicate but in the end it was a 74-70 deserved win over Barcelona. It is the third time during the EuroLeague history that Olimpia sweep the series against the blaugrana juggernaut. “We had an excellent first half, we defended, we moved the ball, we attacked the right players offensively – Coach Ettore Messina said – But we came out of locker room playing very poorly, they reduced the margins to nine, ten points immediately. Then the game became a tough one, because we started being scare of losing, of blowing up our lead which is something we’ve done before. Fortunately, our defense kept going and offensively we were able to make some plays off offensive rebounds. We have to look at the positive, we held Barcelona, a high-scoring team, to 70 points, and we’ll work to improve what we didn’t do well in the second half, particluarly we weren’t patient enough to attack the switches, we settled on too many threes and we stopped going inside like we did in the first half after a couple of misses.”

Olimpia took control in the second part of the first quarter and from that point the margin kept increasing, reaching 20 points before a 47-29 impressive, almost perfect, first half. Melli set the tone defensively and later in the game he had some great plays, an offensive rebound, a steal to stop Barcelona’s attempt of a fastbreak and finally a big drive. Shields converted a three-point play down the stretch on his way to a 23-point effort, his 14th 20-plus point game in his Olimpia career. Rodney McGruder, too, gave the team a lift off the bench off scrappy plays and some energy. “He missed some opne shots that he normally makes, but made one very important in the second half. His defense is solid, I’m happy with the way he played,” Coach Messina added.

Barcelona cut the deficit to five in the fourth quarter, when Olimpia responded and rebuilt a lead that looked to be decisive. However over the last thirty seconds, a five-second violation, one missed free throw, an offensive rebound off a missed free throw and finally a quick three-pointer brought Barcelona back with two. Shields made his free throws and the game was won, 74-70.