Olimpia won a very close battle 81-79 with another memorable play made by Shavon Shields. With 6.9 seconds left and the score tied, he received the inbound pass by Ricky Moraschini, read the defense, attacked Mitchell Watt with a power dribble, got to the rim and scored. Venezia called a time-out and advanced the ball with 1.7 seconds remaining, but Olimpia’s defense was good and forced Stefano Tonut to take an impossible buzzer beating three. Olimpia now leads the best-of-five semifinal series 1-0. Game 2 is scheduled to be played on Monday, in Milan.

In spite of the closing seconds, which were very tight and tense, Olimpia led for the length of the game and in the third quarter built a 12-point margin, but some late turnovers and Venezia’s shooting kept Milan from getting away. Very late, Venezia came back and took a one-point lead off a De Nicolao lay-up. But during the last ninety seconds, Olimpia’s defense was outstanding. Shields made a huge block when De Nicolao tried to score on another cut toward the rim, Kyle Hines, playing with four fouls, completed a great three-point play giving back the lead. Then Venezia used a mismatch to force Malcolm Delaney into a foul over Watt down low. Venezia’s center made his free throws with less than seven seconds left. And finally Shields made the game-winning play.

Shields, who had to sit out the last two games of the quarterfinal series, scored a game-high 25, very efficient, points going 9-for-11 from the field. Kevin Punter and Sergio Rodriguez added 13 each, Hines grabbed nine rebounds and dished four assists. Olimpia had 17 assists and was good at controlling the boards at the defensive end of the floor.