By Cesare Milanti / info@Eurohoops.net
MILAN, Italy – The greatest rivalry of the recent past in Italian basketball delivered once again, gifting thousands of fans the seventh game of the LBA Finals series between Olimpia Milano and Virtus Bologna. In Mediolanum Forum, Ettore Messina’s team won the 30th Scudetto in the club’s history by beating the black-and-white team 67-55.
Gigi Datome was in vintage mode in Game 7, dropping 16 points and 4 rebounds while shooting 5/7 from two, pushing Ettore Messina’s team straight from the beginning. Shavon Shields did the rest, scoring 10 with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Billy Baron added 11 points.
Despite living a low-scoring night with 8 points and 1/6 from the arc, Shabazz Napier played consistently grabbing 4 rebounds and dishing 6 assists. The team’s captain Nicolò Melli was also a huge factor in Milano‘s back-to-back winning championship, ending the game with 4 points and 7 rebounds.
Tough night for Virtus Bologna, which shot only 8/32 from beyond the arc. This reflected also upon the players’ performances, as Daniel Hackett was the only one who never surrender with 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Tornike Shengelia added 13 points and 4 rebounds, but also had 6 turnovers in his team’s decisive loss. In what could have been his last game in Italy, Milos Teodosic had 10 points.
A red-and-white domination
Milano started the game hot pushed by a fantastic sold-out crowd in Mediolanum Forum, rapidly going up 7-2 after a Shavon Shields’ three-point play after 2:30 minutes. Ettore Messina’s team punished the opponents in transition, whereas Virtus couldn’t go back in time. The black-and-white opponents couldn’t convert anything from deep, shooting 1/9 and letting Milano close the first quarter up 21-9.
Reaching the 16-point lead at the beginning of the second quarter, Olimpia Milano seemed way more focused than Virtus Bologna, which wasted many opportunities inside and outside the three-point line. The turning point appeared to come with 6:38 minutes left (26-15) in the second with the first three points of Isaia Cordinier’s night, but the red-and-white home side kept on rolling to go to the locker room up 38-29, as Virtus reduced a little the deficit.
The second half began with Daniel Hackett’s jumper and Milano’s back-to-back three-point misses. A monster block by Jordan Mickey on Shavon Shields with 6:57 left kept Virtus alive, but Nicolò Melli caught bodies seconds later. Marco Belinelli missed the opportunity to put only four points behind Bologna, and Ettore Messina’s bounced back again to the 14-point lead (45-31) with 2:23 left. They entered the last ten minutes of the season up 48-34 as Pippo Ricci beat the buzzer from three.
Following the lowest scoring quarter (10-5) of the night, in the last one Virtus Bologna tried to come back with left energy, but things got basically closed as Shabazz Napier scored five straight points to bring his team back to 53-39 with 6:21 left in the game. Billy Baron finally wrote the word victory with a long-distance dagger at 2:40 left in the fourth quarter for the 15-point lead (64-49).
Like in the rest of this best-of-seven series, Ettore Messina left out of the rotation Kevin Pangos and Brandon Davies, other than Nazareth Mitrou-Long, DeShaun Thomas, and Davide Alviti. Sergio Scariolo, instead, decided once again to sideline Ismael Bako, Gabriel Iffe Lundberg, Kyle Weems, and Leo Menalo.
LBA Finals best-of-seven series results
Olimpia Milano – Virtus Bologna, G1: 92-82
Olimpia Milano – Virtus Bologna, G2: 79-76
Virtus Bologna – Olimpia Milano, G3: 69-61
Virtus Bologna – Olimpia Milano, G4: 93-89
Olimpia Milano – Virtus Bologna, G5: 79-72
Virtus Bologna – Olimpia Milano, G6: 85-66
Olimpia Milano – Virtus Bologna, G7: 67-55
PHOTO CREDIT: Olimpia Milano