By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Despite the fact that until the third period, Milano was in the game, Saras was happy and content with the way his team performed: “It was not so nervous, this one. I think we controlled the game from the beginning of the fourth. We played pretty good defense all game and it was a great effort by the guys because we got the advantage by driving the ball, we got the advantage by offensive rebounds and by just simply outworking and this is exactly what I asked the guys before the game and they did a great job.”
Big man Aaron White added: “We just knew coming off two losses that we needed to play a good game and Milano‘s been playing great, so we had to fight. It took us four quarters, so I’m proud of our team. I was really bad the first three quarters, to be honest; I made a lot of mistakes. So I’m happy I was able to step up for my team and make some plays down the stretch.”
Milano’s coach Simone Pianigiani said from his side:”We know that we have a lot of problems against Zalgiris because they have a lot of mismatches and we don’t have enough size. I think for 25 minutes we played solid defense, we tried with some great effort, but we missed some open shots that didn’t give us a gap to resist in the second half. After that, we lost our concentration for two, three minutes. We gave them some offensive rebounds with free throws, some violations, we lost the ball without reason and after that, we kept missing shots. It was difficult for us. On offense, we have to play much better to score some shots here and when we miss this kind of chance, it is difficult to resist against their size.”