Consistent with its tradition of being able to produce the best during the toughest times, decimated, forced to play with a never-seen before lineup, featuring Nicolò Melli at the 3 along Johannes Voigtmann and Kyle Hines, Olimpia had a superb night, defeating Baskonia 76-69. It was a great team effort led by the Melli and Voigtmann combo, 40 points, 11-for-17 from two, 5-for-10 from three, with the German big man adding 12 rebounds and the Captain providing three huge, thunderous, at-the-rim block. “The crowd helped us, they understood how difficult this game was going to be, the players were great, our defense with huge througout the game, on offense we attacked patiently trying to explore the mismatches. Melli and Voigtmann were amazing, creating shooting opportunities fro themselves, for their teammates, they rebounded the ball, the protected the rim. Flaccadori is improving by the day. Hines was amazing too. We have a certain identity we are showing in the emergency. There was only a stretch towards the end of the third quarter. We were tired, we had to increase the rotation, we took some bad decisions, but overall it was a great effort,” Coach Ettore Messina said.

Olimpia hit the ground running, moving the ball, shooting well from outside, feeding the inside game of Voigtmann. Flaccadori was huge at running the point. It was 11-3 Olimpia and Coach Ivanovic had to stop the game early and regroup his Baskonia team. Olimpia led by ten at the end of the first period and again increased its defensive efficiency early in the second. Flaccadori and Stefano Tonut erected a wall at midcourt. They stole the ball three times in a row and produced a 6-0 run that essentially defined the game. “We broke the game apart, that was the key,” Messina pointed out at the end. Melli scored 14 first half points. During a sequence of possessions, he converted an offensive rebound into two points, added a three from way downtown, and launch a lob pass to Voigtmann for a three-point play. A marvelous display of skills, intelligence, efficiency. “The emergency, the injuries pushed our veterans to step up. Melli, Voigtmann, Hines, Shields before the injury. This is their team and they took good care of it,” Messina said.

During the third quarter, Olimpia opened up an incredible 24-point lead with five minutes left. However, with Melli and Voigtmann on the bench, Baron and Poythress in foul trouble, the team managed to score only one point over four minutes and Baskonia got closer and closer, reducing the margin to ten points before an amazing Kyle Hines’ floater. Olimpia responded immediately early in the fourth. The definitive play was a Voigtmann drive closed by a thunderous dunk over Baskonia’s defense. The rest of the night was only cheers and songs. Olimpia rested the big guys at the end and won 76-69.