Olimpia dominated in Belgrade vs Maccabi in a lopsided 107-74 win, the fifth road win of the season. Olimpia controlled the game from start to finish. Maccabi attempted to stay in contention once in the first quarter, another one in the second when the biggest margin of 10 was reduced at the end, but in the third period Olimpia had its offense in rhythm, scored 33 points and killed the game right there. After shooting 2-for-11 from three, Olimpia made nine threes in the second half. “We corrected what we didn’t have in the first half, offensive rebounds allowed particularly, and we kept playing unselfish basketball for the entire night,” Coach Ettore Messina said. Zach LeDay and Nikola Mirotic, the one-two punch, provided 35 points combined but they uncharacteristically didn’t make any three. However, the team had a lot of contribution from a lot of players. Leandro Bolmaro was big at both ends of the floor; Nico Mannion was instrumental in setting the tempo and scoring a few times early in the third when the game was broken up; Armoni Brooks hit some jumpers; and in the second half, Diego Flaccadori and Pippo Ricci combined to make four threes, just to name a few.

Olimpia was shorthanded among the big men: Freddie Gillespie dealt with foul problems and Ousmane Diop was not available due to some pregame discomfort. The team showed a remarkable next man up mentality: Pippo Ricci played consistent minutes at the 4 next to Zach LeDay. It was smallball all over, but it worked. The second half was a show. “We made the game look easy, but it wasn’t,” Coach Messina said. Olimpia’s defense had a huge night too: Jaylen Hoard, one of the best scorers in the league, was held to two points and his only field goal came after 32 minutes of play; Maccabi went 1-for-21 from three, the only one coming very late in the game. “We have improved, we are not the team we were in October and November, but we need to keep improving,” Coach Messina said.