By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Before facing off on The Night of The Legend Vassilis Spanoulis in Piraeus on Sunday, EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and Olympiacos extended respective preseasons by facing each other behind closed doors Friday.
The scrimmage was limited to 30 minutes. Three periods of ten minutes each were played at the practice facility of Peace and Friendship Stadium, SEF.
Per Olimpia Milan: “Olimpia had an excellent scrimmage in Piraeus against Olympiacos, behind closed doors but highly competitive. With a shorthanded roster due to absences and injuries (the opponent was without Nikola Milutinov, Nigel Williams-Goss and Shaquielle McKissic), only three periods of 10 minutes each were played, with the score reset after each period. For the record, the first quarter ended 20-20, with a jumper by Giordano Bortolani tying up the score (off a well-executed inbound play with 3.5 seconds left and perfect use of the clock), the second was won 22-19 by Olympiacos with a Thomas Walkup three at the end, and the third was tied again, 18-18, with a steal made by Kyle Hines that was turned into an easy lay-up to close the night.
Olimpia featured Guglielmo Caruso in the starting five, as happened in the Cagliari final game, along Nikola Mirotic and Alex Poythress. With only one point guard available, Devon Hall played mostly as a point-man, with Shavon Shields and Bortolani sharing minutes at the off-guard spot. Olimpia led in every period and played thirty appreciable minutes, even if Coach Messina didn’t have the opportunity to rotate players that Olympiacos had, and this led to some occasional blackouts.
Nobody was consistent for the whole 30 minutes, but Shields was the most incisive over the last 20 minutes in which he scored 11 points with six rebounds; Olimpia also converted four three-point plays, essentially tied the rebounds battle (it scored four field goals directly from offensive rebounds grabbed), seven by Mirotic, had five blocks (two each from Poythress and Mirotic) and finally Bortolani started the first quarter with two mid-range field goals, two free throws and an assist for Kamagate.
Olimpia will practice in Athens, tomorrow, then on Sunday it will face the same opponent in the game dedicated to Vassilis Spanoulis.”