By Eurohops / info@eurohoops.net
Thanks to a superb defensive performance after the first period, Barcelona routed Olimpia Milano 74 – 56 to bounce back to EuroLeague wins and improve to 3-2. After two straight EuroLeague victories, a shorthanded Milano squad had its poorest offensive game this season.
There were few notable individual offensive performances and only three players scored in double figures, during such a defense-dominant battle. Mike Tobey stood out for Barcelona with 13 points plus seven rebounds in his top EuroLeague display. He scored all of his 13 points in the first half where his team took a 43 – 29, never to look back.
“I think we did a better job, especially on the defensive end,” Tobey said. “I think we did a great job stepping forward that way – dominating the rebounds was a big thing for us as well – and it was a great game, so hopefully we can build on this. It has been an adjustment for me: a new team, a new position… but I think today was a step forward and hopefully I can build on this, take advantage on my size and try to be aggressive, especially on the rebounds and everything like that. I am happy, it is definitely a step forward, [we’ll keep] trying to build on this.”
Former Barcelona center Brandon Davies was the only Milano player to actually be productive. In his first game vs. his ex club, the American big man had 18 points plus six rebounds in 19:40 minutes but received little help from his teammates. The Red Shoes are still missing leading scorer Shavon Shields (to be evaluated around mid December) and guard Naz Mitrou-Long (expected to return soon).
“They played very well, and we were outmanned physically and technically on both ends of the floor,” Milano coach Ettore Messina said. “We played too poorly to have a chance to win the game. After the first quarter, they ran [all] over us. I think [Jan] Vesely changed the game defensively and we just couldn’t score anymore, and our defense could not support us enough. We played too poorly to have a chance to win this game, so congratulations to Barcelona, who deserved the win and played very well.”
Cory Higgins added 11 points for Barcelona that went on to go up even by 23 points in the fourth quarter.
Barcelona coach Sarunas Jasikevicius gave some time to 18-year-old James Nnaji who played four minutes in the first period and helped the Blaugrana get out of an early 2 – 8 deficit and tie the score at 12 while he as on the floor. He finished with seven points.
One more in a very long road
Saras commented on how his team will look to build some consistency with a couple of consecutive wins in order to continue taking steps “forward.”
“I thought we were a little more solid after the first quarter, in which we gave up too much easy stuff,” Jasikevicius said. “[It was] a little bit [of an] ugly game; I think that we missed a lot of shots and I thought Milan missed a lot of shots. There could have been opportunities for both teams, but OK, like we said, it is early in the season, it is going to happen, and the most important right now is to keep improving and to try to win games, obviously. The whole season is always a couple of steps forward, some steps back… Right now, we took another step forward. It’s very important on Sunday [in the Spanish League] to not to take a step back.”