Third quarter was huge. Olimpia raised the defensive pressure, intensity, controlled the boards and used the defense to ignite the break. A one-point lead going into intermission after a close-knit first half became a 14-point commanding lead entering the fourth. The third quarter score was 23-10. Olimpia never let Brescia back in contention and finished the game 93-68 taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series. Game 4 is scheduled to be played in Milano on Friday night.

The first half was a close battle. Shavon Shields hit first. He approached the game making two straight three-pointers and scored the first 10 Olimpia points on his way to 20 for the night. Brescia responded, took a lead in the second period and then it was Nico Mannion’s turn to take over with eight points in the period including a three-point play and a three. At the half Olimpia led by one point because of a huge floater scored by Josh Nebo at the buzzer. “They made some tough shots but we stayed in the game. Shavon set the tone, swept doubts away, Nico had a great stretch and Ousmane Diop came up big as always. He knows his role, he is a positive energetic guy,” Coach Peppe Poeta said.

Coach Poeta stayed with his starters in the third quarter for eight minutes and 34 seconds. He didn’t touch a line-up that was working so well, so he changed the rotation a little bit. When Leandro Bolmaro returned to the game, Olimpia raised the intensity even more. He was a terror defensively and made great plays at the offensive end of the floor, including a pair of threes and a thunderous dunk on a break. “Against this Brescia team that clogs the middle and keeps one more defensive player in the paint leaving Ellis open you need to hit the outside shots. When we beat them, we shot well. Tonight we didn’t shoot particularly well but we ran more. This is another way to beat them. But in order to run you need to be even more effective defensively,” Poeta remarked at the end.