By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With 13 seconds remaining and the score 78 – 74 between Baskonia and Olimpia Milano, Mike James, the top scorer of the game with 26 points, was fouled at a 3-point attempt. He went 1/3 from the line and on the other end, Marcelinho Huertas made the layup to seal the 80 – 75 win of his team after a comeback from 14 points down in the first half.
It was quite the victory for shorthanded Baskonia that got the tiebreaking advantage (the first-round game was 93 – 90 for Milano), improved to 9 – 10 and climbed to the playoff spots despite the absences of forward Tornike Shengelia and guard Jayson Granger, among others. The still Nemanja Nedovic-less Milano suffered its third loss in a row and dropped to 8 – 11.
The Italian side could’ve escaped with a positive outcome in this match if Simone Pianigiani’s players didn’t miss a couple of easy layups and fared better from the free throw line. They finished with 13/22, including four missed attempts in the final three minutes.
Baskonia, on the other hand, made most things right down the stretch, save for the aforementioned foul on James. Vincent Poirier positioned himself at the right places to finish plays (17 points, eight rebounds) and Huertas dropped six out of his 13 points in the last minute to keep his team up and never allow Milano to even tie the score. Luca Vildoza added 12 assists to go with his six points for the Basques.
“They killed in the first two quarters with their performance on offense but scored only 26 points in the second half“, said coach Velimir Perasovic after the game. “We played more compact, like a team, wanted it more, took every rebound and they were not scoring in transition. That was the key – defense is always key. The important thing is that we won today. It was an important game for us because we played against a direct opponent. We cannot think of other things. We are using the players that we have and are happy with the victory.”
Apart from James (27 points, seven rebounds, five assists) no other Milano player finished in double figures. The visitng squad was up by 14, 35 – 49, near the end of the second quarter thanks to James going off (17 points at the break) but saw its advantage getting cut to seven at halftime thanks to buckets by Darrun Hillard (9 points) and free throws by Shavon Shields (13 points, five boards).
Poirier and Johannes Voigtmann (11 points, 10 rebounds) then pushed Baskonia towards getting a lead in the third quarter. They never gave it up.