Milan beats Fenerbahce in sprint, Ettore Messina’s words

Milan beats Fenerbahce in a sprint, the words of Ettore Messina

In the thirty-first game of the Euroleague regular season, EA7 Emporio Armani Milano first dominated, then came back and finally beat Fenerbahce 77-76 in a sprint, a two-point basket by Shavon Shields and two free throws by Nikola Mirotic in the final seconds being decisive. Shields and Mirotic finished with 15 points each but Nicolò Melli did better with 17. With this victory Olimpia hooks the tenth position that is worth the play in zone. Here are the words of coach Ettore Messina at the end of the game.

“We beat a very strong team indeed, a candidate for the title. I’m happy with the win, we had two great quarters, then we started to feel a little bit ’ fatigue. The good thing è that we kept competing and fighting and in the end the two teams looked for their best players with a little bit more individual plays. We made a couple more stops defensively and we won”.

“I hope these games can be a turning point. I hope they feel the satisfaction of having done good things, with the patience to make a help, a pass or a defense at the right time. We have been able to hold on in moments of difficulty, like when in Munich they came back to -6 or today when they went ahead by 1. This è what changes seasons. We havenè t seen much this year, I hope this can be a turning point in the season. Però I want to live game by game. All the times we have looked further out, we have hurt ourselves. Now I want to take what we are seeing, a’picture of strong cohesion, as there was not for example in Villeurbanne or Venice. I hope this kind of attitude continues. I saw it in training, now I hope we always put it in the game”.

“Stefano (Tonut, ed) had a tiring start, then in the second half he è unlocked. Alex (Poythress, ed) è made himself ready. We needed his athleticism. I hope he continues like that;. We moved the ball very little in the end, mainly because of their excellent defense. An aspect we need to work on to do better against very physical teams”.