Billy Baron with 21 seconds left in the game, after a time-out called by Coach Ettore Messina, from the left corner, got the ball from Kevin Pangos (his 11th assist of the night) and made his only three of the night. It was by far the most important one because Olimpia took the lead for good, 83-81 in Munich. It’s been the third straight road win of the EuroLeague season. Baron’s corner three erased Vladimir Lucic three that gave Bayern momentarily the lead. In the last defensive possession, Olimpia made the stop, Kyle Hines couldn’t control the ball and with 3.8 seconds left in the game, Nick Weiler-Babb got the ball and was fouled by the same Baron. He missed both free throws, so Olimpia was also a little bit lucky. “In the end, the game could go either way – Coach Ettore Messina said – Of course, we hit a very difficult shot with Billy, but we tried to give him the ball and he made a big shot. We were lucky because Weiler-Babb, who is a great player and a great shooter, missed two free throws, but it happens. And Nik Melli today really took the team on his shoulders and carried us to come back when everything was going, let’s say, downhill after the injury of Shavon Shields.”

Olimpia trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and again came back gradually, closed the margin to six points at the half after a huge Kevin Pangos three and kept going in the second half. Olimpia riding Brandon Davies mid-range ability too, took the lead, tried to get away, allowed again some threes (Bayern made 13 three-pointers for the night) and so the game became up for grabs in the closing minutes. Olimpia struggled a little bit, because Shavon Shields’ left foot injury in the first quarter took a big toll and Pangos, who had a double double, finished very tired and missed a couple of floaters. So, with a Cassius Winston’s masterpiece offensively, Bayern stayed in the game and managed to get the lead when Vladimir Lucic hit a great three opening a two-point margin in the last minute. Baron responded and the rest is for archives.

While Baron was the hero in the end, Kyle Hines bounced back from his tough night in Belgrade by scoring 10 points with nine rebounds and a huge, spectaculr block on Lucic in the fourth period, Nicolò Melli was a true leader througout the game. He stayed on the court more than 33 minutes, scored 17 points, added six rebounds, three steals and finished with a 29-point personal rating. He was a monster.