At the end, it became a fistfight and Olimpia came out on top edging Fenerbahce 77-76. After trailing most of the night, by as many as 17 points, Fenerbahce had a great shooting fourth quarter, mixing its inside and outside game with Wilbekin and Motley especially. Entering in the homestretch, Fenerbahce took a lead fort the first time since the 6-3 early lead off a Scottie Wilbekin’s dagger three. Olimpia responded with a hige long two made by Devon Hall. But Fenerbahce had another 4-0 run, with a Guduric lay-up and a Biberovic offensive rebound that was converted. Suddenly, Olimpia was on the ropes. “The key part of the night is that we fought and competed,” Coach Ettore Messina said. Nikola Mirotic, who was held scoreless in the second half by Fenerbahce defense (“We didn’t move the ball well enough to get him involved; this is something we need to improve on,” Messina pointed out), and even couldn’t take a shot off, made a huge three taking advantage of Johannes Voigtmann’s offensive rebound. On the verge of collapsing, Olimpia tied the game up with a shot. “Then, we had a couple of stops. Both team relied on their best offensive players down the stretch, we trusted them to make plays, but we had a couple of stops,” Messina said. The defense resisted one time. Shavon Shields worked on a isolation play and made a terrific mid-range jumper that gave Olimpia the lead for good. The defense resisted another time. Mirotic grabbed the rebound. He was fouled and made his foul shots to extend the lead to four. Fenerbahce didn’t give up. Tarik Biberovic took a desperate three-pointer from the corner with Mirotic all over him. It was basically a lob shot that found the net and forced Olimpia to make one last play, an inbound pass that saved the win.
Olimpia hit the ground running against a red-hot Fenerbahce team (“They have depth, they have shooters, they are a contending team for the title,” Messina said at the end). The first five field goals were four threes and a three-point play. Nicolò Melli had an oustanding, impressive, sensational first half. he scored 13 points, he made threes, he attaccked on transition plays, he was all over the floor. Olimpia scored 20 points in the first five minuted, led by as many as 14 points, ten at the end of a 28-point inaugural period. In the second, defenses took over. Still, Olimpia led by 17 before Fenerbahce found some rhythm offensively, first hammering the ball inside to Sertac Sanli, then with its shooters. At the half the lead was reduced to seven.
In the second half, again Melli took over, scoring twice on at-the-rim lay-ups. Olimpia attempted to get away one more time, but Fenerbahce defense was much more effective. They eliminated Mirotic from the offense and forced Shields to put the ball down. When Fener shrank the deficit to three points, Stefano Tonut came out big hitting a three, then another (“Tonut struggled early in the game but he was much more aggressive in the second half and he was a factor, just like Alex Poythress who gave us a lot of energy that we needed because we anticipated Kyle Hines struggling a little in the second game in three days,” Messina said). Shabazz Napier made a long three. Three times the lead was extended to six. And still Fenerbahce was in the game. Motley was used for his physicality inside. Olimpia’s lead went up and down. “Then fatigue set in a little bit and somehow we struggled,” Messina admitted. Fenerbahce went small at the end with Hayes-Davis, Biberovic and three shooters. Finally, they took the lead. Olimpia was on the ropes but didn’t stay there long. It was a tough, hard-earned win.
