“We had to set the tone early and we did,” Kevin Punter said after scoring 23 points in 23 minutes, all of them in the last three quarters on his way to lead Olimpia to a huge, impressive 93-72 win in Belgrade. It’s not just the 20th EuroLeague win of the season, not just the 10th road win, it’s the one that clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2014. During the EuroLeague era, it’s just the second time that Olimpia will play in the post-season.

Olimpia hit the ground running, building a 10-0 lead that forced Coach Dejan Radonjic to call two early time-outs, trying to stop the bleeding. Olimpia never raised the pedal from the metal, responded to any comeback attempt, closed the first half ahead by 11 after a Punter’s buzzer-beating three, and made another run early in the third quarter, essentially killing the game in less than three periods. “We came off a couple of disappointing loss, but tonight the energy and confidence that we had were incredible,” Coach Ettore Messina said. It was a collective effort, Punter scored 23 points, Zach LeDay added 14 with four threes, Shavon Shields scored in double digit for the tenth straight game, Kyle Hines set the tone defensively, and Sergio Rodriguez while scoreless kept pushing the pace and kept hitting the open man on his way to a 8-assist over 17 minutes effort. Everybody contributed and the game became a small sample of a marvelous EuroLeague season. “Like coach said, we had two disappointing losses in a row where our offense wasn’t where it was before, so we had to come out and move the ball and play aggressive on defense and I think we did a good job of that,” Shavon Shields said.

“I’m happy for the club, Mr Armani, his family and our President Dell’Orco because they made sure to make us feel their support. It’s great to pay them back with this accomplishment. Now, we’ll play a mentally-light playoff and we’ll try to do our best,” Coach Messina added.