Olimpia set the tone early, approached the game with two threes, and five spectacular minutes from Sergio Rodriguez, who had a couple of threes, two steals, a pair of no-look assists, and never looked back in a 102-73 win over Reggio Emilia. The team made seven of its first eight three-pointers, finished with 10, but won going away because of the defense that forced 25 turnovers. Reggio shot the lights out from the court, 11-for-18 from three-point range, but couldn’t stop Olimpia’s offense. Milan led by more than thirty points for most of the second half, six players scored in double figure, including Paul Biligha. He had all his 10 points in the fourth period. “I’m happy to spend a couple of words for Paul Biligha. He was a presence, he’s being a presence for a while in the Italian league games,” Coach Ettore Messina said.

Coming off a very crowded schedule, Olimpia used 11 players, kept Kaleb Tarczewski on the sideline, like Shavon Shields and Vlado Micov, who were not available for the game, and Malcolm Delaney was rested on the bench. “We limited our veterans’ minutes, which was important, and the guys coming in had a very good outing, we shared the ball offensively and we played a serious defense,” Coach Messina added.

Sergio Rodriguez led the scorers with 18 points and seven assists; Gigi Datome and Zach LeDay added 15 each. Datome went 6-for-7 from the field, his efficiency was big. Kevin Punter, too, went 5-for-7 from the field. And again, Jeff Brooks had four steals and Andrea Cinciarini four assists.