By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The final score was 79-74, however, the game was decided in the last two minutes and Milan got a very hard-fought home win against EuroLeague newcomers Paris.
Shavon Shields with 21 points was the top scorer of the winning side, Nikola Mirotivc added 15 points and Zach Leday had 13 as the Italians got their first win of the season in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague after losing to Monaco in Round 1.
As coach Ettore Messina admitted: “It’s an important win to break the ice. It was a difficult game against a team that played really fast and with a lot of isolation. It took us too much but at the end we got it. As Sarunas Jasikevicius said, it’s better to learn after a win than after a loss”.
TJ Shorts proved once again the leader of Paris with 17 points, and Malcolm Collin added 12 as the French side had the chance to get a big win.
However, the lack of experience proved to be more than important in the end.
A fight until the end
Playing at home, Milan was the de facto favorite. The hosts took an 18-12 lead and closed the first period being up by two (20-18), letting Paris hope.
That proved to be a mistake. Milan was in the driver’s seat, having a 33-26 advantage with four minutes left in the first half and suddenly Paris took over with a partial score of 13-2 (39-35) and pushed their advantage to seven points (50-43) in the middle of the third quarter.
Still, at the end of the period, Milan was up by one (58-57) and everything was possible.
Paris started the fourth quarter with six unanswered points (63-58) and pushed the lead once more to eight points (71-63) but with two minutes left the score was tied at 73.
Zach Leday in the next play gave Milan the 75-73 lead and Paris couldn’t score after that.
Photo credit: EuroLeague