In spite of an hard athletic workout in the morning and damaged by missing four players (especially two of them were centers) Olimpia struggled but still fought and finally won against Pepinster, basically refusing to lose. At the end of the day this is the kind of mentality Coach Luca Banchi is trying to establish, even when the strict rotation forced him to play a lot of small ball, with David Moss or Bruno Cerella acting as “4”. In the fourth quarter Daniel Hackett was decisive: he scored the most important baskets, dished a couple of assists and put the offense into its rhythm, allowing MarShon Brooks, in a night of low percentages to stay on the bench in the fourth. It was big also Joe Ragland accuracy from the line. 73-68 was the final score. Olimpia will play again on Saturday in Bormio against Autodor Saratov.
OLIMPIA – Meacham (0/2, 0/3), Brooks 16 (2/8, 2/5), Moss 6 (2/3, 0/4), Kleiza 13 (3/6, 1/4), Gigli 5 (2/4, 0/1), Ragland 15 (4/5, 1/4), Cerella 6 (0/2, 2/5), Peterka (0/2), Hackett 15 (1/3, 2/5).