Playing inside the legendary Pionir, against a legendary and historical team like Partizan, Olimpia closed its preseason on a high note, dominating 85-65. Partizan is not the great powerhouse it used to be but it’s still a respectable team, well-coached by Dule Vujosevic but after a great first half by Edo Muric, Olimpia raised the defensive intensity, its aggressiveness and was very sharp offensively in spite of being short-handed in the front line. Coming with no Shawn James, Samardo Samuels and even the perimeter player best-equipped to act as a “big”, David Moss, Olimpia lost in a matter of minutes Nicolò Melli and Angelo Gigli in the third quarter. With Linas Kleiza as the only survived big, acting as a center, Olimpia exploded, opened up the court, used Bruno Cerella as a 4 and destroyed Partizan closing the game with five perimeter players and Gentile disguising himself as a 5. Linas Kleiza showed his offensive weapons, scoring 21 points, Alessandro Gentile had an all-around night adding 6 boards and 6 assists (and 3 steals) to 18 points. Bruno Cerella did a lot of damage scoring 12 points while shooting 5/6 in 18 minutes. The final score was 85-65. Olimpia closed the first half down by two, then took off.
THE BOXSCORE – Partizan Belgrade-EA7 Emporio Armani Milano 65-85. Partizan: Tepic 10, Muric 29, Marinkovic 2, Dallo 6, Gagic 10, Andric, Bezbradica 2, Bogdanovic 4, Salic 2. Olimpia: Gentile 18 (4/7, 2/6, 6 ass, 6 reb), Hackett 4 (2/5, 0/1, 4 reb, 3 ass), Bartoli (0/1), Melli 2 (1/4, 0/1), Meacham 5 (1/1, 1/1), Ragland 9 (1/1, 2/3, 4 ass), Brooks 9 (2/4, 0/4), Kleiza 21 (2/5, 5/7, 6 reb), Gigli 5 (2/2), Cerella 12 (3/3, 2/3).