By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Last season Olimpia Milano suffered an absolute upset in the Italian League Finals when Virtus Bologna swept them 0-4. One year later, they got the best possible payback they could.
Gigi Datome scored 23 points and Milano beat Virtus 81 – 64 in Game 6 to win the Finals 4-2 and celebrate the 29th Italian championship title in the history of the club and first since 2018. The Red Shoes controlled the match from start to finish and turned the whole affair into a rout from the end of the third period and onward.
Milano was leading 43 – 36 at halftime and went on to increase the level of its defense to keep Virtus scoreless for five minutes en route to taking a 61 – 46 advantage. Ettore Messina’s players kept the same intensity to go up 73 – 47 with five minutes to play as their opponents heavily struggled to connect to the basket.
Shavon Shields added 15 points for Milano while being named MVP of the Finals. Sergio Rodriguez completed what was likely his last game with the team by posting 12 points plus eight assists. Milano overall worked like clockwork on offense, finishing with 22 assists.
Virtus, on the other hand, was quite dysfunctional for the larger part of the match and stars like Milos Teodosic (five points) or Tornike Shengelia (eight points, six turnovers) were unable to become factors. Amar Alibegovic (11 points, five rebounds) and Nico Mannion (10 points) scored in double figures for the Bologna side that had an otherwise successful season after winning the EuroCup and getting a ticket back to EuroLeague.