Olimpia erected a wall in the second half, holding CSKA to 29 points on its way to an impressive 84-74 win in the EuroLeague opener. It was the perfect night. The team came up giving Coach Messina an amazing birthday present while Sergio Rodriguez, who had 17 clutch points, appeared in his 300th career game and made at the end his 500th three-pointer. “We started a little shy, the. Kyle Hines and Chacho made us think that winning the game was possible,” Coach Messina said. Hines was the defensive wall along Nicolò Melli and in the last 12 minutes Giampaolo Ricci in the first game of his career. Hines made six of his seven shots, was everywhere when Olimpia’s defense became the key factor of the game.
Melli’s physicality and his ability to get to the line 11 times abusing mismatches was another huge factor in the win. Devon Hall, another rookie, scored 11 first-half points: while Will Clyburn used his superior size at one end of the court, Hall used his quickness. And Shavon Shields attacked the floor in the second half scoring 15 of his 17 points in a memorable half. “We allowed them to score 29 points in the first period alone, then we set up our defense and started moving the ball better,” Messina added. Late in the third quarter, he elected to go with a smaller lineup with Dinos Mitoglou at the 5 and Ricci at the 4. “He gave us a lot of energy, he was one the guys that were able to resist on one on one situations down low so to give us the chance to defend out on the perimeter and take away some threes,” Messina said.

Ricci energized the crowd too. “We made some energy plays, Grant diving on the floor to steal a ball, a couple of blocked shots and some rebounds gotten in the traffic. People liked what they saw and gave us some lift,” Messina closed.

Shavon Shields had a night to remember too. Now he is a 500-point Olimpia scorer. “”We played great defense in the second half – he said – and that’s what allowed us to extend the lead and win the game. We weren’t guarding in the first half, but we stepped up in the second half and got it done. We’re growing as a team, we’re learning, we have a lot of new guys and this is only the start. Hopefully, we will build throughout the season and keep getting better every day.”