It was an incredible shootout in Turin and Olimpia prevailed over Brescia 106-102 to clinch a berth for its third consecutive Italian Cup championship game, vs Derthona. Olimpia shot 59.3 percent on its threes, making 16 of them and shot only slightly worse on twos. But it was the same for Brescia who never gave up and had a couple of great individual performances by CJ Massinburg and Amedeo Della Valle who had 29 points again. Brescia was particularly impressive in the first period when it built a 34-26 lead. “That was a key: they couldn’t miss, they were perfect and we stayed mentally in the game,” Coach Peppe Poeta said, because Olimpia struggled defensively with Leandro Bolmaro immediately plagued by two fouls, while attempting to slow Della Valle down. At the same time, Olimpia found some rhythm offensively and stayed close. Olimpia took the lead momentarily in the second quarter, then went down again in the third by eight points twice. Leandro Bolmaro kept the ship afloat with a three and then Armoni Brooks took over.

Late in the third, Armoni Brooks made three threes after a runner, 11 points straight so Olimpia suddenly went ahead by four 76-72 at the end of the third. He started the fourth with another three. He finished the game with 27 points. But the game was not over. After looking in control a couple of late turnovers allowed Brescia to score two easy lay-ups. Brescia came back within one. At that point, Brooks made a mid-range jumper, then a three after Della Valle’s foul shots. He made another jumper a little later. So when Shavon Shields made a three and made an alley-oop pass for a Josh Nebo dunk, Olimpia close the game off for good.

Playing with only one center, Josh Nebo, Olimpia was able to virtually tie the rebounding battle, had 18 assists, in the second half managed to lower Brescia’s shooting accuracy in the paint (Miro Bilan had 13 points, way below his average; Jason Burnell had 13) and made 16 threes. While Brooks made five threes, Zach LeDay and Shavon Shields added four each. Olimpia went 16-for-18 from the line. Brescia characteristically shot 35 foul shots and scored 12 more points from the free-throw line but that’s something expected. “They are smart, they are good, the are experienced, it is hard to defend them, so the number is huge of course but not something that I’m going to question,” Coach Poeta said at the end.