Fenerbahce came to Milan focused, full of energy and sharp on execution an in a shoot-out came out on top 100-92. It was the 11th win in the last 12 games. “It’s one of those nights where you can just congratulate your opponent because they were better than us. We played a good game, with the exception of some minutes in the third quarter when we lost our composure offensively, we turned the ball over a couple of times, but our offensive numbers were great. Rebounding was a key, they made three threes off offensive rebounds. Obviously you cannot expect to win a game, allowing 100 points,” Coach Ettore Messina said.
Olimpia led by two at the half, after two consecutive threes made by Gigi Datome (16 points) and Jeff Brooks, who returned after a two-month absence, then the lead reached seven points in the third quarter a couple of times. That was when Fenerbahce responded and Olimpia lost its poise, rushed some shots and allowed Lorenzo Brown to make three threes in a row including a four-point play. A 14-0 run opened up the game. Olimpia responded again in the fourth, coming back within one, but couldn’t finish the job. After the second time-out called, Fenerbahce found a De Colo’s three and a Jan Vesely three-point play that basically solved its problem. In the end, Fenerbahce tied to take the lead also in terms of head-to-head matchup, but a driving lay-up by Kevin Punter, who had 20 points for the night, tied it.
Gigi Datome just became the 40th player ever to score at least 2⃣.0⃣0⃣0⃣ points for his Turkish Airlines EuroLeague career!
Well Done Gigi! 🧔🏻👌🏼#insieme #EuroLeague #GigiDatome@GigiDatome pic.twitter.com/hgH0bzCBX2— Olimpia Milano (@OlimpiaMI1936) March 3, 2021
“Obviously, with no Delaney, our defensive pressure on the ball is not the same, we’ll try to improve our defensive organization and to speculate a little bit – Messina said -, because at the end of the day the guys putting pressure on the ball has to make things happen at the other end of the floor. It’s not easy at this level.” Olimpia is now tied in the third place with a 17-10 record with seven games left in the regular season, one game ahead of Fenerbahce in a very tight race for the playoff’s berths.
