It was a battle and Olimpia got very close to edge CSKA in the unusual Kaliningrad setting. Milan led at the half by seven, regained the lead at the end of the third, survived somehow a 7-for-8 three-point explosion early in the second half and came up really short, losing 78-75. CSKA got away for good in the fourth building over a career-night by Daniel Hackett. It earned a nine-point lead, but Olimpia never gave up. A 5-0 run reduced the margin to four. Olimpia kept defending we’ll down the stretch, but missed the last few opportunities to steal the win. Nedovic missed the three to shrink the CSKA’s lead to one, the there was a fast break opportunity that got away and a critical turnover. “I’m still happy with the way we competed because every time we are a little bit better, a little bit closer to these great teams, like CSKA today or Real Madrid last week,” Coach Messina said after the game. He started with Micov at the 2, Brooks at the 3, played Nedovic mostly at the point and used several players on Mike James who was kept at 1-for-6 for three and didn’t score in the fourth period, then Messina finished with Gudaitis and Tarczewski together on the court. By mixing and matching, Olimpia almost stole the win. “I think the key was Daniel Hackett. He made great choices, when to pass, when to shoot or attack and obviously ha made a lot of threes,” Messina commented.