Olimpia is on the road again, this time flying to Spain to play Valencia, a team coming off a loss in Villeurbanne. Milan is coming off another tough close loss against Real Madrid, a game that was played really well, but the team failed at closing it out, blowing a 17-point first half and a 14-point third quarter lead. Unfortunately a great game by Riccardo Moraschini, who re-wrote his personal record book, was wasted.
OLIMPIA – The team practiced in late morning inside its Mediolanum Forum headquarter before leaving to Valencia on a private plane. All the players left Milan on the team plabe, including the ones coming off injuries, like Christian Burns, Sergio Rodriguez, who played 11 minutes on Tuesday night, and Kaleb Tarczewski, who left the game in the closing seconds with an ankle problem.
COACH ETTORE MESSINA – “We are fighting for our survival in the playoff race. We come from a game that we played really well for the most part, against Real Madrid. What we need to do, against a very aggressive Valencia team, is to replicate that game, but with the intent of closing it with more efficiency, should it be another very tight game. This is something that we didn’t do both in Kaunas and against Real Madrid.”
THE REFEREES – Boris Rhyzhyk (Ukraine), Damir Javor (Croatia), Emil Mogulkoc (Turkey).
THE OPPONENT –Valencia’s star has been Bojan Dubljevic for years. The Montenegrin big averages 14.0 points per game with 6.6 rebounds, he shoots 59.6% from two-point range and 81.0% from the line. In the first leg he scored 20 points in the first half. Sam Van Rossom, who missed the last few games due to an injury, and Quino Colom share responsibilities at the point-guard position and average nine assists per game combined. Van Rossom is also a deadly shooter. Valencia has many relevant Spanish players, as well as Colom: Alberto Abalde (7.2 points per game), Guillem Vives (who scored 14 points in Villeurbanne), the 36-year-old forward Fernando San Emeterio and Joan Sastre, a guard who has scored 22 points combined in the last two outings. The French forward Louis Labeyrie (4.5 rebounds on average, second-best behind Dubjevic) and the leaper Maurice N’Dour (6.0 points per game, 58.5% from two) guarantee athleticism, Mike Tobey is a tough center that does not disdain long-range shooting, just like Brock Motum (38.7% from three-point range). Jordan Loyd is the creative perimeter scorer who has missed the last few games with an injury. Dangerous is also the Dutch forward Aaron Doornekamp who has occasionally been decisive for Valencia
THE LAST TIME WE MET – Sergio Rodriguez (13 and eight assists) and Amedeo Della Valle (15 points, career-high tied) fueled a 14-0 run that made it a double-digit game, 53-43, soon after the break. Milan led 62-51 late in the third quarter, however, Sam Van Rossom and Louis Labeyrie brought Valencia within three with 6 minutes left. Luis Scola and Micov stepped up to make the difference down the stretch.
HISTORY LESSON – Olimpia have played five times in its history against Valencia with a favorable record, 3-2. In the 2010/11 season, Olimpia won 80-69 in Valencia with 26 points from Jonas Maciulis, 18 from Marjonas Petravicius and 17 from David Hawkins. In the return game, which was played in Biella, Valencia took the revenge by winning 75-60 with 20 points scored by Rafa Martinez. Two years ago, Olimpia won 103-98 after two extra periods in Valencia, coming back from 17 points down in the third period, and making 17 threes, a team record. In the return game, in Desio, Valencia won 93-89, in spite of Vlado Micov who scored 27 points, his career-high in the EuroLeague. In this season’s first leg, Olimpia won 78-71 with 15 points from Amedeo Della Valle, 13 and 10 rebounds by Kaleb Tarczewski, 10 points and eight assists by Sergio Rodriguez.
THE VALENCIA CONNECTION – Sam Van Rossom played in Italy in Pesaro, but on loan from Olimpia for which he never played. Nemanja Nedovic, returning from his NBA experience at Golden State, played for one season in Valencia with 32 Spanish league appearances, five EuroLeague games and eight Eurocup games. It was the 2014/15 season.
