Olimpia Milano improved to 18-2 in its Italian league campaign, defeated Trieste 102-84, a season-high in terms of points scored, and erased the loss suffered on the road against the same team. Olimpia struggled a little bit early in the game, took the lead late in the second after two straight three-pointers made by Pippo Ricci and Troy Daniels. The second half was when Olimpia took total control of the game and cruised to the win. More good news: after a three-month absence because of a right hand injury, Shavon Shields focused on his defense early in the game and looked like his old self in the second half when he scored 16 points, didn’t miss a shot and found the net in each and every possible way. Kaleb Tarczewski had a dominating 20-point, 10-rebound double doble game. Gigi Datome also was back. Sergio Rodriguez set the tempo, dished eight assists, but it was a game everybody enjoyed. Jerian Grant set the tone defensively and finished the job on a high note offensively too. “Early on, it looked like we were taking a look at Shields and Datome instead of playing our game, then we pushed ourselves a little bit on both ends of the floor. Shields’ game was very encouraging. Happy about Tarczewski, too. We have a lot of depth now, but our schedule is terrible and we need every one of them,” Coach  Messina said.