By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Mike James scored the crucial points of the game leading Olimpia Milano to a narrow 81-80 home win against Khimki in Round 4 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
With Milano having a 78-77 lead in the last minute, Sergey Monya notched a triple to put Khimki ahead with 24 seconds remaining. In the following offense, Milano’s James took the three-pointer getting fouled in the process by Jordan Mickey. James made all of the free throws handing his team the win.
“In the last quarter, we missed too many open shots that let them come back”, said Milano’s coach Simone Pianigiani. “But I am so proud of my players because tonight we had two-three players really sick, we were without Nedovic, and without energy, they won this game with defense, because after missing the open shots, we stayed strong on defense. This is so important for our mentality. We played two games at home like this arriving to the end against Real Madrid and tonight we deserved this victory.”
James finished the game with 25 points and eight assists while Dairis Bertans helped with 16 in addition to Arturas Gudaitis’ 13 points.
For Khimki, Jordan Mickey had a great night with game-high 26 points along with seven rebounds while Alexey Shved added 19 and Dee Bost 14 points.
Both teams were managing to stretch the floor with pick and roll plays throughout the first half leading to some fairly easy points. Khimki’s Jordan Mikey profited most from it as he notched 14 points while shooting 7/9 from the field.
Milano had a small lead after the first ten minutes (23-20) but Khimki managed to tighten the paint and along with better three-point shooting (7/18 in comparison to 2/8) go on the halftime rest with a 45-39 advantage.
The Italians gained a bit of a momentum after the break and although Khimki was still ahead 54-51, Bost committed an unsportsmanlike foul on Gudaitis which paved the way for Milano turning the tables and gaining a 62-57 lead after a ‘barrage of threes’. Khimki didn’t allow them to gain any comfort, keeping the gap small and bringing the game to an interesting finish.
Milan improved to 3-1 record with this victory while Khimki is ‘in a pinch’ as they still wait for their first (0-4).