By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olimpia Milano wing Riccardco Moraschini had never shot a free throw in his EuroLeague career until he drew the foul to go to the line with eight seconds remaining and his team down 78 – 77 to Panathinaikos on the road.
Moraschini made both. On the other end, Nick Calathes, Panathinaikos’ top scorer (23 points, plus five rebounds and four assists) in the match, missed his game-winning attempt for 2, and Milano escaped OAKA with a major 78 – 79 victory. A result that marked the Italian team’s second win in the EuroLeague season and second defeat for the “Greens.”
“Of course, we made some shots and didn’t turn it over, and finally, in the fourth quarter, at one point, we started to get some defensive rebounds. That was the game,” Olimpia Milano coach Ettore Messina said in hist post-game flash interview for EuroLeague TV.
Making shots was half the job for Milano in the game. The “Red Shoes” finished with 14/26 3-pointers, a big contrast to Panathinaikos’ 3/20. Vladimir Micov made 3/6 from beyond the arc en route to finishing with a team-high 18 points while Michael Roll scored 4/7 triples and 16 points in total. Luis Scola had 17 points and nine boards for Milano.
Jacob Wiley posted 17 points and seven rebounds for Panathinaikos that was up 68 – 61 with 6:10 left. Milano responded with a 0 – 9 run to make it a close match that resulted in their win.
In waiting for the injury list to be empty
While Messina was pleased with Milano leaving Athens with a win in the bags, he pointed at how his team still has a long road until it functions to the best of its abilities. After all, the squad is still missing a couple of key players.
“It is the beginning of the season and there are a lot of new teams. We need to work on everything. We cannot work with the help of Nedovic, Gudaitis and Mack, and we hope they are back soon, but I am proud because, in the second half, we had only 1 turnover. And in a game in which we struggled on the boards, because I think they had 22 points on second chances, to at least counter that with taking care of the ball and shooting well was great.”
On the other side, coach Argiris Pedoulakis admitted: “Losing for the second time in a row is bad for us. We lost in the same way and by the same score, actually. In the first 5 minutes, Milan found ways to score against us; it took us 5 minutes to get into the rhythm of the game. Wiley and Johnson helped us very much on defense and to balance the game out. We lost in the last play of the game, but I believe that the key factor was the bad shooting percentage that we had. We shot 3 of 20 for three and Milan made big shots at the end of the game”.
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball