It was a weird Game 2 that featured 70 combined free throws, five fouls called on three-point attempts, Ousmane Diop was ejected, a lot of nervousness. The climate didn’t help Olimpia that let the circumstances destroyed its collective mental game and lost 85-79. Brescia basically led the entire first half, the game was tied at 60 after three quarters. Olimpia still had some chances to get control. The last time tooke place when Shavon Shields made a huge three to give Olimpia the lead in the fourth quarter. But then on broken plays Ivanovic and Della Valle, the Brescia ball handlers who combined to score 51 points, made consecutive threes. Olimpia tried again but was plagued by some confusion and mental mistakes. In the end, it was a hard night, shooting was not there, 5-for-24 on threes, free throw shooting was mediocre, 18-for-28, on top of it twice Ivanovic speculated on tactical fouls to get unwarranted trips to the line. Armoni Brooks fought with foul trouble all night. The fourth happened in the third quarter and when he returned in the fourth he was rapidly called for a fifth. Everything that could go wrong went even worse. The series is now tied at 1 each. Game 3 is scheduled to be played on Wednesday night in Milan. Game 4 will take place next Friday, in Milan again.

“They won all the fifty-fifty balls in the first quarter, we got nervous early, but were able to correct our game and be in control a couple of times. Again, we got nervous, talked to the referees. The called the game consistently, we didn’t read it very well. Overall, we didn’t play a very smart game. On top of it three-point shooting and free-throw shooting didn’t help us for sure,” Coach Peppe Poeta said. Ousmane Diop was ejected from the game with 5:59 left after tangling with Della Valle, who was called with a technical foul. However, Diop reaction cost him the ejection after a big game. Of all the player, Diop looked like the most effective one, he absorbed three charges, scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds in just fifteen minutes on the court. The Nebo-Diop duo was able to limit Miro Bilan (12 and seven rebounds) but was not as decisive overall as it used to be in previous games, including Game 1. Nebo was a presence especially early in the third when Olimpia got momentum but he had to fight fouls all night long. To protect the centers from foul problems, Coach Poeta implemented briefly a no-center line-up with Ricci and LeDay together. Of course, allowing 42 free throws was a little bit too much to overcome. “We were mostly killed by Ivanovic’s 24 points. He controlled the game, shot 17 foul shots,” Poeta added.