Olimpia dug itself a big hole in the first half. Playing with no energy both physically and mentally went down by 25 points, 49-24, in the middle of the second quarter, and was still trailing by 21 at halftime. The big comeback was huge and somehow spectacular but fell short in a 98-94 loss to Tortona. “Our first half was mediocre at best. We started the game with no mental emergy and just a little bit of physical energy. It is tough to play on short rest, everybody around Europe is showing this. We had a great comeback in the second half. It wasn’t just pride, there was a lot of good basketball around but we had to come back from too far and fell short. We gave ourselves a chance to win the game regardless but again we felt the fatigue of coming back,” Coach Ettore Messina said. Armoni Brooks led the scorers with 26 points and a huge effort. Five players scored in double digits and Shavon Shields looked perfectly sharp offensively, the best since he returned from an injury. A couple of late threes forced Tortona to play until the last second to close the game out. The offense provided 94 points once more. The defense cost the game, in short terms. Tortona scored 58 points in the first half. Olimpia was able to play some solid defense in spurts, but in the end a couple of stops were necessary and they didn’t come.