Emergency? Which emergency? Olimpia went to Barcelona with no Mirotic, no Baron and no Maodo Lo, but led the length of the game and finally prevailed 90-86 with 11 made threes, a great defensive effort and physicality. Olimpia hit the ground running, making three threes the first three times down the court, “but eventually we moved the ball, and scored in different ways, we attacked the rim, we went to the line, we did a great job under the board,” Coach Ettore Messina remarked. Shavon Shields was a monster in the first half, scoring 17 points including five threes, the third straight game he finished with five threes. In the second half, when Barcelona became much more aggressive and extended the defense, it was Diego Flaccadori the unexpected hero. He finished with 15 points, 13 after the half. When Barcelona attempted its first comeback of the second half, he made two consecutive drives to the rim. At the end of the third he hit a long two that allowed Olimpia to enter the fourth period up by nine. He was good at drawing fouls and converting fouls shots. “His second half was huge,” Messina added.
Shields dominated the first half and Flaccadori was great in the second, but Devon Hall and Nicolò Melli were outstanding for the entire night. Hall had a career-high 21 points over 24 minutes plagued by fouls. When he re-entered the game with a little more than five minutes remaining, he made huge shots and defended while keeping himself on the court. Melli set the tone early. He made the first three of the night, he grabbed six rebounds, ha converted two three-point plays, the last one extended the lead to nine points down the stretch and it was basically the end of it. Melli passed Georgios Printezis and now is the fourth best defensive rebounder in the history of the EuroLeague. “It was a collective effort, we moved the ball and we defended hard for 40 minutes”, Messina said.
Olimpia was efficient from the line too, making 17 of its 19 attempts. Kyle Hines had another milestone, passing Felipe Reyes and becoming the second-best rebounder in history behind Paulius Jankunas. He was all over the floor and his dunk at the end the game was the exclamation point on a great night. “At the end of the day, we defeated Bologna last Sunday and won here, after two painful losses in Munich and Belgrade against the hottest team in the league. It wouldn’t be possible if these playerd didn’t have something inside, they showed heart and qualities,” Messina finished.
