83-63 was the final score. Olimpia won the Cagliari tournament, beating Dinamo with a twenty points margin after leading for the length of the game. Once more four men scored in double figures, the “usual” three Poythress, Mirotic and Shields plus Devon Hall and a clearly improving Kevin Pangos, with 12 assists. Sassari had to deal with several absences, including three potential starters (Tyree, Bendzius, Charalampopoulos) but with the same team they had beaten Red Star the night before. Olimpia essentially had seven player missing, so the coaches had to share the playing time among everyone, and succeeded in keeping everyone under 23 minutes, fouls or no fouls.
With the wing rotation thinned by the unavailability of Diego Flaccadori, Coach Messina chose an extra-large starting lineup with Mirotic at the 3 for the entire first half except the last portion of the second period when the foul troubles that plagued the big men forced him to review the plans (Kyle Hines had four in the second quarter; Ismael Kamagate had three; two each were committed by Alex Poythress and Willie Caruso). Olimpia tried to use the automatic mismatch created by Mirotic against one of Sassari’s perimeter players right from the first possession. Kevin Pangos masterfully orchestrated the game, feeding the big men incessantly (nine assists in the first half alone, 12 at the end). The only moment of struggles came in the second part of the first quarter with the emergency lineup and Ousmane Diop imposing his physicality inside the paint. Olimpia, who had scored 14 points in the first five minutes, scored five the rest of the period so Sassari was able to comeback within striking distance. But the same thing didn’t happen in the second part of the second period when – despite huge foul problems – Olimpia scored 33 points riding the Hall (practically only used at the point)-Bortolani duo. They combined for 16 points, with 5/6 from the field for Devon and a three-point play completed by Giordano on a transition situation. At halftime, the lead exploded to 24 points, 52-28.
In the second half, the fouls dictated the bigs rotation. Hines and Kamagate fouled out, but the margin was kept intact. Over the last five minutes Coach Messina used the remains of his bench with Stojanovic at the 4 next to Caruso and three small guards including the 17-year old Samuele Miccoli who was able to score on a lay-up.
Olimpia came to Cagliari to keep developing the chemistry and came back to Milan with a couple of good games. It was able to overcome adversities and this is important. Adversities as missing players including Flaccadori, who got injured in the first game, and foul troubles that dictated many subs. In the end it was a good trip. Next it has a trip to Athens to play twice against Olympiacos including the big celebration game for Vassilis Spanoulis.
Dinamo Sassari-EA7 Emporio Armani Milano 63-83 (28-52)
Dinamo: Pisano, Treier 14, Kruslin 2, Whittaker 12, Raspino 2, Gandini 3, Gentile 5, Diop 12, Gombauld 13.
Olimpia: Poythress 15 (5/6, 5/7 ft, 6 r, 3 stl), Bortolani 8 (2/8, 4/4 ft), Pangos 5 (1/1 2pt, 1/5 3pt, 12 a), Stojanovic (0/2), Miccoli 2 (1/2), Kamagate 6 (3/4, 5 r), Hall 14 (4/5 2pt, 2/3 3pt), Caruso 5 (1/2, 3/6 ft, 7 r), Shields 14 (4/7 2pt, 2/3 3pt, 3 a), Mirotic 12 (4/4 2pt, 1/4 3pt, 3 a), Hines 2 (1/2, 4 r).
