Ettore Messina absolves Zach LeDay and explains the key to the knockout loss
Intervening in a press conference following Olimpia Milano’s defeat on the court of Virtus Bologna in game-1 of the Scudetto semifinals (68-67 the final score), Ettore Messina does not want to make dramas, aware of a balance between the two teams amply demonstrated Saturday night by the fact that the first game ended in a sprint.
In addition, the Red Shoes coach explained that he did not want to give too much weight to the two free throws missed by Zach LeDay in the final: “He’s a guy who shoots the free throws with 90% and more, it happens even to the best ones to make mistakes. It happened to him tonight, even though he is usually hasty from the lunette. I repeat though, it can happen”.
The key to the defeat, for Messina, is more in the details than in the’setting of the game: “It’s very likely that if we had grabbed a couple more rebounds, especially the one conceded at the end to Shengelia, we would be talking about a’different game. But we lost by one point against the best team of the regular season, it was a high-level contest, with the result that could have rewarded either’one or the other team”.
L’Olimpia Milano clinched a spot in the semifinals by beating, despite the initially unfavorable court factor, Aquila Basket Trento. After winning game-1 73-70 and losing game-2 70-67 away from home, the red and white closed the series in front of their home crowd, winning game-3 107-79 and game-4 89-82.
