When the game was on the line, Nikola Mirotic erased his struggles and came up big for Olimpia. He scored nine points in the last four minutes and led the comeback that allowed his team to defeat Treviso 86-80 after a long battle. Treviso approached the game solidly, full intent of making an impression early in the season. It led by as many as 11 points. Olimpia played catch-up all night long. The first time it tied the game up was late in the second quarter, but Treviso responded and kept a two-point lead at the half. In the second half, Olimpia attempted to get away in the third. After two straight three-pointers by Kevin Pangos built a nine-point lead that looked to be decisive. But Coach Messina had a lot of foul troubles to deal with. He was forced to use an emergency line-up and while some guys were up to the challenge (Ismael Kamagate scored five points including a three-point play), Treviso came back one more time. At that point, the game was too deep to make sure a close call was avoidable. Treviso had some players very hot, Ky Bowman in the third, Joe Young in the fourth. A couple of time, went up by four, the last one with four minutes left the game. Enter Nikola Mirotic.

After struggling most of the night, clearly nervous, he had three points up to that moment, a timely three made early in the game, and a lot of foul problems to address. But he made two free throws, added another three-pointer from the corner, two more free throws and all of a sudden, with seven consecutive points, he turned the game around. The four-point deficit became a three-point lead. Olimpia came up big defensively too. Stefano Tonut made two free throws himself, Mirotic added two more. The definitive play was a steal made by Shavon Shields, who capped a sensational game. He scored 22 points and added seven assists. Alex Poythress was huge too. He came off the bench and his aerial game was trouble for Treviso. He made a couple of dunks, was a presence inside. He had 10 points in the first half and finished with 16 despire missing four free throws.

“We approached the game softly – Coach Ettore Messina said – but gradually we found energy with our most relevant players. Treviso was very alive, Coach Vitucci had them prepared. The second half we scored 50 points and that was good. Communication defensively is an issue we will have to address. Shields had a big game, Tonut was very solid throughout the night, he stayed on the court more than 30 minutes and deserved every one of them. Finally, Melli finished strong and Mirotic did what great players sometimes do. He played the other way around for three quarters and came up big in the fourth.”