25-plus minutes of great team basketball were enough. A 15 point late third-quarter lead was not enough, too. When the Partizan tsunami, in front of 20.000 people, hit, Olimpia didn’t blink and succumbed, in the end 83-69. Olimpia led 60-45, moved the ball, hit the shots, grabbed the rebounds and was playing high-level defense. Looked pretty much in total control. But it took a couple of mistakes, a couple of big shots made by Kevin Punter, some free throws and everything changed. Momentum changed hands dramatically. “We are in Professor Nikolic country, and we did exactly like in his parable – Coach Ettore Messina admitted – We filled the buckets with a lot of milk and suddenly we kicked the bucket and spilled the milk over the floor. We played a beautiful game for almost 27 minutes. What we did in the last part of the third period is frustrating. As a team, we need to feel personally accountable for our actions.”
Olimpia took control of the game early, had an impressive first half. Shavon Shields hit five threes, scored 15 points, sustained by Maodo Lo, Nicolò Melli energy and defense, Kyle Hines pride, and led by as many as eight points before closing the half up by five. In the third quarter, Olimpia was amazing for some minutes. Devon Hall dunked a missed shot; Nicolò Melli hit a three; Kyle Hines hit a mid-range corner jumper. Shields made his free throws, Johannes Voigtmann hit a pair and the lead reached 15 points. Then everything finished. Partizan closed the quarter with a 16-2 run. Turnovers, silly fouls, bad shots followed. Partizan got a lot of confidence led by Kevin Punter and Zach LeDay, PJ Dozier in spurts. After three quarters the lead was reduced to one single point.
Right then, in front of a tough, impressive crowds, Partizan played with a lot of enthusiasm, hit a lot of shots, James Nunnally made two straight threes. Olimpia looked lost all of a sudden. Once Partizan took the lead, Olimpia was done. In the end, it was a punishing 83-69 loss. “We made poor decision down the stretch, obviously we don’t have Mirotic, we don’t have the point-man we are still looking for, but we have to improve, because we have become professional of throwing games away, teacher at mastering this skill. We need to improve,” Coach Messina pointed out.
