Olimpia lost in the Italian Supercup championship game 90-84 to Virtus Bologna. Trailing for most of the game, Olimpia attempted a desperate comeback thanks to a 29-point fourth quarter, but missed the shots to get within three with plenty of times remaining. So, it lost by six at the end. Bologna approached the game better, took an early lead, Olimpia responded the first time, then lost control of the tempo, in the third quarter looked on the verge of collapsing. Instead, it was capable to raise the energy level, but making up for a 16-point deficit was a little too much. Olimpia won the rebounding battle (Nicolò Melli had 10 boards in a double double losing effort), but Virtus was able to shoot the ball a lot better from inside the arc, 25 for 41, using the inside game of Jaiteh and Alibegovic in particular. They combined for 31 points. Alessandro Pajola made the rest, on his way to a deserved MVP award. Olimpia didn’t shoot the ball well enough in the first half, but improved a lot in the second, finished with 11 threes, led by Sergio Rodriguez and Shavon Shields. It wasn’t enough. “Our interior defense was not good enough and we paid for it – Coach Ettore Messina said – They started the game better than us, we were in a hole and it was difficult to make up for that. We had some good spurts, but when in a knock-down game you allow 90 points the chances to come out on top are very slim. We are a little behind because we started to prepare late and some guys need to understand better what we need.”

BOXSCORE

Virtus Bologna-Olimpia Milano 90-84 (23-20; 44-35; 67-55)

Virtus: Pajola 14, Belinelli 9, Teodosic 9, Weems 10, Hervey 4, Abass 6, Tessitori, Alexander 7, Jaiteh 18, Alibegovic 13.

Olimpia: Melli 10 (4/7, 2/2 ft, 10 r), Rodriguez 17 (3/5, 3/6, 2/2, 5 a), Ricci 3 (1/3, 3pt), Moraschini, Hall 12 (1/2, 2/4, 5/5, 6 r), Delaney 8 (3/6, 0/3, 2/2, 5 a), Mitoglou 8 (4/9, 4 r), Shields 19 (2/6, 5/10, 5 r), Alviti 2 (1/2, 0/1), Hines 4 (2/3, 6 r), Datome (0/2, 0/1).