It was a tough, phsyical, classic playoff game that Olimpia led for 40 minutes straight, winning 77-66. Nothing like the Game 1 shootout, that was a battle since the start. “There were a lot of hard contacts, but unfortunately no team, not us, not Brescia, understood what the referees deemed as legal or illegal, so that confused everybody,” Coach Ettore Messina said. Olimpia started the game on fire both ends of the floor. Five threes were made over the first six minutes, there were steals that generated breaks. The lead reached 15 points early. “Then we started to be a little less sharp offensively, and when we got back to move the ball well, we missed some open shots. After that we got nervous. It wasn’t easy to bounce back like that in the second half, hats off to my players,” Messina remarked.

Brescia tied the game up for the first and only time early in the third period at 35. Olimpia bounced back with an 8-0 run. From that point on, Olimpia owned the game, didn’t kill it but never let Brescia become threatening. The defense was much better than in Game 1. The only problem was finding a way to keep Brescia out of the free throw line. In the first quarter, defensively a masterpiece, Olimpia allowed just two field goals, but Brescia scored 10 points from the line. However, after his extraordinary Game 1 show, Della Valle was held to a single-digit output and didn’t have many chances to set himself on fire. “Maybe he was a little fatigued, but we did a much better job – Messina pointed out – the key was to limit the number of opportunities that he had.”

Nik Melli’s job on Miro Bilan inside was another key. The Croatian inside scorer got his point from the
line mostly. “Defensively Melli and Tonut were amazing – Messina said – Melli was our anchor, Tonut had +25 for the minutes he was on the court. An amazing game, not the first for him. I subbed him late in the game because I wanted people to recognize his game.”

Olimpia was able to mix the inside and outside game. Brescia clogged the middle more and gave up open looks from the perimeter. Except for the second quarter, Olimpia took advantage of it, making 14 threes. Nikola Mirotic had a 16-point second half. Particularly he made 10 points in the first part of the third quarter when Olimpia regained its lead. Devon Hall had a couple of great moments, shooting the ball, Shavon Shields was huge at attacking the rim. When it was needed, Melli made also a big three late in the game that demoralized Brescia. “Voigtmann was big for us too, he is playing with confidence, his teammates are trusting him, and he is a big facilitator when it comes to move the ball around quickly. When we do that, the best shooters are getting better looks. This is why tonight Nikola Mirotic was able to score a lot. He had some beautiful connections with Napier, with Shields, with Melli. That’s the key,” Messina finished.

Olimpia now leads the best-of-five semifinal series 2-0, but the series is now moving to Brescia for Game 3 on Thursday night.