Shavon Shields picked the right night to play the best game of his young life. He scored a career-high 34 points, went 11-for-12 from the line, and was impressive throughout the game that Olimpia won 92-89. It’s an historic win, since Olimpia won the best-of-five series against Bayern Munich 3-2 and clinched a berth to the Final Four, the first in 29 years. “I think my players were amazing – Coach Ettore Messina said at the end – because under tremendous pressure after losing two games on the road against an excellent Bayern team, who played I think a terrific season and a great series, I think we came up with a very solid game. It was almost spoiled by one minute of craziness. We turned the ball over almost every possible way in the book. But then there was a great defensive play by Kyle Hines and that was the game.”
Bayern started the game on fire, made its first four shots and took an early lead. Olimpia kept the composure, responded and gradually took control of the game, leading by as many as 16 points in the fourth. Along Shields heroism, there were a lot of guys doing great things, starting with Kyle Hines. He had 12 points, went 6-for-7 from the field, grabbed seven rebounds and made countless defensive plays. The last one stopped Wade Baldwin drive and saved the night for Olimpia. While Sergio Rodriguez had seven assists, Malcolm Delaney made some key baskets on his way to another superb performance, godd for 16 points in spite of being hurt by foul trouble in the second half. Olimpia made 12 three-pointers out of 22 attempts and made its first 18 free throws.
Olimpia was great for 39 minutes, then Bayern attempted a miraculous last-second comeback when it made two straight threes, had a couple of consecutive steals and in a matter of seconds came within two and ball in hands. “We were afraid to win, everything happened so fast that I didn’t have the time to call the timeout and advance the ball. Fortunately Hines made the great final play,” Ettore Messina said. Then he added: “It’s great for the club, the fans the people working behind the scenes, people like my great assistant Mario Fioretti. He’s been here for 18 seasons and finally he will taste a Final Four. For us more than the Final Four it’s imperative to come back to the playoff next season. We need to be the kind of team who is there, in the playoffs season after the seasons, because it’s the best way to get to the Final Four every now and then”.
