Olimpia won the Italian league opener in Napoli with a 73-63 win. Milan approached the game on a high note building an early 10-point lead and never trailed. Napoli tied the score momentarily at 21 after the first second quarter possession, then Olimpia established its ownership of the game. Early in the fourth, it built a 19-point lead and was still up by 17 with less then three minutes to go, before raising the foot a little bit in the closing seconds. “We didn’t have a great shooting night – Coach Ettore Messina said -, but we had an excellent defensive game and we controlled the boards.” Olimpia had a good three-point shooting first half converting 7 of 15 attempts, led by Shavon Shields, who scored all of his 13 points in the first half, then it was better at attacking the floor in the second half when Gigi Datome was very dangerous. Dinos Mitoglou had a double double and Pippo Ricci added nine rebounds. “We were without Kyle Hines and Sergio Rodriguez, that means something, but Kaleb Tarczewski was ready to go and had a solid game. Gigi Datome was very involved in the game. For us he is crucial to increase our shooting. He was sidelined for 10 days before the Supercup and struggled in the championship game when the athleticism level was very high, but he is coming along,” Messina added.