Olimpia attempted a furious comeback against Brindisi, coming from 18 down to within one with seconds left, but at the end had to surrender, losing 92-89. Brindisi had a stellar shooting night, making 10 of its first 15. Olimpia came back at the end of the first quarter, but eventually was hit again early in the second, when Brindisi created the deficit. In the third, the margin exploded. Olimpia tried the zone defense, held Brindisi at 3 points in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. The rally brought people on its feet, led by Sergio Rodriguez’s impressive 28-point show and by two consecutive Vlado Micov’s three-point plays. The comeback was almost completed with plenty of time to play, but three turnovers cost dearly, gave Brindisi room to breathe and allowed the lead to stay big enough for a last push. “We almost cameback and we have our fans to thank for being patient and helping us – Coach Ettore Messina said at the end -, but the reality is that 89 points should be enough to win any game, home and away, especially at home. We made every kind of mistakes. To be a competitive team at the highest level, you need to play solid defense, but our defense at this time is not up toour standars. We need to find a way to defend better, we’ll find it. The zone helped us, they lost some flow, we had more opportunities in open court, we had more open looks and offensively we made some good things. The turnover difference and some rebounds tha we missed made the difference. But where our problems are resting is clear, it’s not a matter of having good defensive players or not, it’s a matter of improving. That’s all.”

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