The sixth win in a row, it’s a huge one. Olimpia defeated Zenit St. Petersburg coming from behind after trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half, nine at the intermission. The second half of the game was a great one. Olimpia closed the deal, winning 82-76, holding Zenit to 32-second half points.

Olimpia reduced the margin because of its outstanding defense in the third quarter, took the lead for the first time after the first few possessions on a six-point run completed by Vlado Micov, then the game became a battle, with a lot of ties. Austin Hollins made a huge three that allowed Zenit to regain a three-point lead, but Olimpia responded once more. Kevin Punter, of an inbound play after time-out, made a clutch three, then the defense, sustained by an incredible Kyle Hines, supported the effort. Punter scored again going to the bucket and finally Malcolm Delaney made the big three with 35 seconds left that ended the game.

“It’s a huge win for us, against an excellent team. Its defense posed different challenges to us, we didn’t move the ball from one side to the other in the first half and defensively we recovered out on the shooters, but at this EuroLeague level is not enough to raise an arm to really contest shots. We have to give a lot of credit to the guys, because it’s not easy to turn around a game that started bad,” Coach Ettore Messina said at the end. Kevin Punter led the scorers with 14 points, seven of them at the end, Sergio Rodriguez added 13, Malcolm Delaney 12 and Vlado Micov, in his true return, 10.

Kyle Hines was impressive with 12 points, eight rebounds and two assists on top of countless defensive plays. “It was a big win – Hines said -. We were sleepwalking in the first quarter, but we came out and made adjustments. We showed maturity. These types of wins matter the most when the season matters the most. All of us put in the work every day, we all have one goal and every day we say ‘Insieme’ because that means together, and we’re together right now.”