A 25-point explosion launched Olimpia to its 8th Italian Cup triumph, repeating the win conquered during the last season. Derthona was defeated in the championship game, 78-61. Olimpia basically never trailed, but during the two middle quarters struggled a little bit offensively and couldn’t get away. The defense kept the team in the lead and finally everything clicked at the right time. Malcolm Delaney, 10 points in the championship game, completed a glorious weekend with the MVP award; Sergio Rodriguez was the best passer and had 11.7 points per game for the tournament; Nicolò Melli was named the best Italian player after a 14-point and 9-rebound outstanding effort on Sunday. Kyle Hines was the most consistent throughout the tournament, grabbing 8.3 rebounds per game. He shot 75 percent from the field. “Once more the defense won the game for us. The team stayed true to itself, moving the ball, rebounding and defending – Coach Ettore Messina said – We made too many silly mistakes early in the game, but when we started moving the ball we created a lot of good shots and when we began hitting them the game was ours.” Gigi Datome also was great, helping the team with defense, rebounds and a lot of little things. In the fourth he also made a couple of huge threes. Olimpia took off and never looked back.