By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
AX Armani Exchange Milan bounced back and took down Crvena Zvezda 79-62 at home in Round 7 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague to end this week nearly intact with a 6-1 record. Milan and Barcelona are the current standings leaders after the latter suffered its first defeat against Maccabi earlier on Thursday.
After a solid 24-6 start for Milan, the Serbian side fought back in the second and third quarter, though Milan’s superiority from the three-point line played a key role in the final result.
Shavon Shields was once again the top scorer for the hosts, who have managed to keep their homecourt undefeated so far in the season, by picking up 18 points. Troy Daniels had his best game with the Italian side so far and scored 12 points and 14 minutes on the court. Kaleb Tarczewski completed the list of top scorers with 10 points.
Shields talked about Malcolm Delaney’s absence in his post-game quotes and highlighted the importance of this bounce-back victory: “They are a tough team, we knew they were going to keep playing. Luckily, we tightened it up at the end of the game to extend the lead and win the game. Malcolm [Delaney] going down hurts us a lot, he is important to our team and our defense, but everyone is coming and stepping up, to kind of help do it by committee.”
Things are not looking up so bright for Zvezda, which slipped its fourth game in a row to fall to a 2-5 record. Luka Mitrovic led all scorers for Dejan Radonjic’s squad with 17 points and Ognjen Dobric added 13.
Photo: EuroLeague