Nicolò Melli had a double double, 13 points and 12 rebounds, Shavon Shields scored 22 points, 15 in the second half and they led Olimpia to a convincing 79-72 win over Bologna in Game 5 of the Italian league championship series. “As my old coach at San Antonio said when Parker, Duncan and Ginobili play well and the other guys are helping them, we win… Every team is the same, when the top guys perform then everybody else is better positioned to help. Otherwise it is more difficult for everybody. But tonight our bench helped a lot, Pippo Ricci and Paul Biligha especially,” Coach Ettore Messina said.

Olimpia led for the entire game after the first couple of possession when a 8-0 run determined to first lead. Bologna kept coming back but never tied the score again after the first quarter. In the third, Milan led by as many as 13 points, but Hackett and Belinelli had their runs. It was a hard-fought game. When it counted the most, Olimpia grabbed crucial offensive rebounds and finally Shields made the crucial field goals. “He is having a great series, it is good for us now and for the future, fot what we want to do,” Messina added. Olimpia controlled the rebounds, often grabbing the 50-50 balls, had a more balanced offense, with a series-high 42 two-point attempts. “We realized we could n0t rely too much on three-point shooting, we were more aggressive going inside, we also moved the ball well, from side to side. When we didn’t we caused ourselves turnovers and ill-conceived possessions,” the Coach said at the end.

Olimpia changed a little bit its game plan, starting Gigi Datome at the 3 and Shavon Shields as a big 2. “We wanted to better handle the mismatches,” Messina explained. Also Ricci was used at the 3 and took care of Marco Belinelli, who was the most dangerous opponents with his incredible array of shots. And finally, to handle foul troubles (Voigtmann especially in the first half, Melli in the second), energy and the shoulder injury that plagued Kyle Hines, Messina used Paul Biligha for 11 high energy minutes. He kept the ball alive, he made a dunk, he made a terrific block at the rim over Toko Shengelia. Biligha was all over the floor, he earned minutes for the regulars.

Olimpia now leads the best-of-seven series 3-2, with Game 6 scheduled to be played on Wednesday night in Bologna.