L'Olimpia rises again in Kaunas: Ettore Messina applauds defense

L’Olimpia Milano is back to winning ways in the Euroleague: the red-and-whites conquered Kaunas beating Zalgiris 89-78. “It was a beautiful victory against a team that is playing very well – stressed coach Ettore Messina to the club’s official channels -It is always nice to come here, to play in a full arena as it was already in Belgrade and Munich. This is a sign of the great technical product that the Euroleague offers”.

“We started a little bit’ contracted for two reasons above all – explained the white-and-red coach -: we struggled to adapt to the level of physicality required by the game, so the defense was not up to it right away and we lost some rebounds because of that; on offense we were a little uncertain in the way we attacked their defense. But gradually our defense stepped up, we got the rebounding issue right, and on offense we were able to attack with patience I would say throughout the rest of the game. So we scored 89 points against one of the best defenses in EuroLeague. We played four away games, two of them we won, and this game still shows how in EuroLeague in 48 hours everything can change aspect”.

Turning to individuals, he spoke this way about Giampaolo Ricci: “He is one of our two captains, an experienced player who gives us so many things. He is a good three-point shooter, 36-38% on the season, but today he obviously shot better than usual. His teammates were good to give him the ball at the right times, he was great to make himself available. So he did and shot even better than usual”.

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On Quinn Ellis, on the other hand, he said: “He is a very promising player, we are lucky to have signed him after a high-level season in Trent. He has size and athleticism to play in EuroLeague at a high level. In the league he started well, in the Super Cup he was decisive, in the EuroLeague he struggled a bit to adapt to the physicality of the competition. But he is a guy who comes to the gym every day ready to train, to work. He has the right culture, because he grew up in a basketball family”.

Closing remarks on Bryant Dunston: “We always joke about him daring to wear Kyle Hines jersey number 42. But I consider it an honor that he’s with us, he’s helping us on the court and he’s helping us off the court. As a type of play, team mentality, professionalism he reminds me so much of Hines”.