Olimpia played a terrific offensive game for more than three periods, building a 16-point lead in the second half and staying ahead for the length of the game. And still it took a monumental defensive stand at the end to preserve a well-deserved win over Khimki, 89-88. Milan stopped to move the ball, was plagued by fatigue, fouls (Jordan Theodore had three early fouls) and some silly turnovers. That’s why after dominating the game, it had to deal with Khimki’s rally. But after a Goudelock free throw, the defense made a huge stop to secure the 1-point win. Goudelock was brlliant and even spectacular at some times, scoring 23 points, picking his spots against one of the best perimeter defender in Europe, Charles Jenkins, but it wasn’t alone. Jordan Theodore was superb in dealing with fouls troubles and still producing especially late in the game. Kaleb Tarczewski was great scoring 15 points, making all nine of his free throws and he was dominating inside late in the game, dealing with two very talented players like Malcolm Thomas and Honeycutt. They combined for 45 points. “It was a test we needed against this kind of EuroLeague team with size and depth – Coach Simone Pianigiani said at the end – We’re not ready yet because too many new faces and too many players missing but I liked the approach, the attitude, the way we played as a team before our fans and all the guys wanted to make a very good first impression. I loved that in the end we made a great defensive effort to keep the win: we could’ve spent the one foul to give we had but we wanted to play defense through the end. That’s a good sign. We re working well but I cannot stress enough how much behind we are, when compared to other teams”.
Olimpia Milano-Khimki Mosca 89-88
Milano: Theodore 14 (2/4, 2/3. 4/4 ft), Goudelock 23 (4/4, 4/7, 3/4), Micov 8 (1/2, 2/4 from 3), M’Baye 7 (2/3, 1/3 from 3), Tarczewski 15 (3/3, 9/9 ft), Ratkovica 7 (1/1, 1/1, 2/2 ft), Dragic 7 (2/3, 1/3 from 3), Fontecchio (0/1, 0/1 from 3), Ortner 5 (2/2, 1/1 ft), Jefferson 3 (1/4, 0/1, 1/2 ft).
Khimki: Honeycutt 19, Markovic 7, Pateev, Zaitsev 2, Vyaltsev 8, Sokolov, Monia 3, Anderson 10, Jenkins 8, Thomas 25, Klyuev, Karpenkov.
