With a roster depleted, no Malcolm Delaney (injured), no Sergio Rodriguez, Kyle Hines and Gigi Datome (all of them rested in the middle of a crucial juncture in the EuroLeague season), Olimpia struggled to score in Venezia, had just 10 assists and one three out of 12, so in the end Reyer came out on top, 69-63. This season, it’s the first time that Venezia defeated Milano. “I think it was a high-intensity game – Coach Ettore Messina said -, I believed that our defense was very good for most of the night and the effort was tremendous. Obviously, we lost because we couldn’t score. It was not unexpected since we didn’t have our point-men Delaney and Rodriguez and we didn’t use our third facilitator, Kyle Hines. We still had promising minutes from Moraschini and Wojciechowski.”

Olimpia led in the first period, then the game was very close throughout the night. Olimpia’s defense kept the team in the game. Reyer was able to finish it because the offense didn’t have enough scoring ability. Through execution and dribble penetration, Olimpia was capable to go to the line, going 24-for-26 for the night, but it didn’t have much more. And it wasn’t enough against a very intense Venezia team. Kevin Punter led the scorers with 13 points, Zach LeDay added 11