2016-17Regular SeasonRound 19
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 99
Olympiacos Piraeus 83
January 25, 2017 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 MEDIOLANUM FORUM
Krunoslav Simon - EA7 Emporio Armani Milan - EB16

Big fourth quarter lifts EA7 Milan to victory over Olympiacos

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan used an inspiring fourth quarter to pull away to a resounding 99-83 win over visiting Olympiacos Piraeus on Wednesday night. Its second consecutive win improved Milan to 6-13, while Olympiacos dropped to 13-6 and the third place in the standings. Olympiacos tied its club record with 21 offensive rebounds, but Milan overcame the visitors’ domination on the glass with a big performance in the fourth-quarter when they scored 32 points against the league’s best defense. Davide Pascolo finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal, with most of it coming in the final 11 minutes of the game. Krunoslav Simon collected 16 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds and Milan Macvan scored 15 points. Zoran Dragic added 12, while Rakim Sanders and Jamel McLean had 10 apiece in the winning effort. Georgios Printezis scored 16 for Olympiacos and Kostas Papanikolau and Khem Birch each collected 11 points plus 8 rebounds; the two combined 13 offensive rebounds. Erick Green netted 10 points in the losing effort.

Olympiacos dominated offensive boards from the start, with Birch in the main role. When Vassilis Spanoulis added a three-point play, the visitors went on a 0-10 run and opened a 6-14 lead. A triple from Papanikolaou and a second-chance dunk from Nikola Milutinov made it 10-19. But Simon hit a three-pointer that cut the deficit to 15-21 after 10 minutes, before Dragic, Andrea Cinciarini and McLean got Milan going. They scored all points in a 10-0 run that put Milan in front 29-26, and a couple more baskets by McLean, including a big driving dunk, got the hosts to 37-30. After a timeout, Olympiacos responded by scoring 6 consecutive points, and Printezis hit a three-pointer that tied it at 41-41 at halftime. Olympiacos had 14 offensive rebounds in the first half, and 4 more in the first three minutes of the third quarter. During that span, Vangelis Mantzaris hit a three-pointer, and Printezis scored on a fast break to get back in front, 43-47. However, threes from Mantas Kalnietis and Macvan, and a three-point play from Miroslav Raduljica turned things around, giving Milan a 56-54 edge. Pascolo’s three-pointer that beat the third-quarter buzzer made it 67-61. The teams traded blows early in the fourth quarter, and Green hit a three that made it 71-70. But Milan ran away pretty quickly after that. Pascolo, Simon and Macvan were simply unstoppable, and with defensive help from Cinciarini and Dragic, Milan kept increasing the lead. A driving layup from Spanoulis got Olympiacos within 81-77, but Cinciarini, Pascolo, Macvan and Simon all scored in an 11-2 run that opened a 90-79 lead with 2:36 to go and there was no coming back for the visitors.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Euroleague.net
Referees: ROCHA, FERNANDO; GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; MAJKIC, MARIO
Attendance: 8040
By Quarter1234
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan15262632
Olympiacos Piraeus21202022
End of Quarter1234
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan15416799
Olympiacos Piraeus21416183
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MCLEAN, JAMEL 16:04 10 4/5   2/3 2 1 3 1   1   1 4 3 9
2 FONTECCHIO, SIMONE DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 HICKMAN, RICKY 13:39 2 1/2 0/1 0/2       1 2 1   1 1 2  
9 KALNIETIS, MANTAS 17:05 5 1/3 1/2     1 1 4   1       1 7
11 RADULJICA, MIROSLAV 10:42 7 3/4   1/1 1 1 2     2     4 3 5
12 DRAGIC, ZORAN 26:21 12 4/8 1/2 1/1   1 1 2   1     1   8
13 MACVAN, MILAN 32:07 15 6/7 1/2   3 3 6 1 2 1     2 3 22
14 PASCOLO, DAVIDE 17:28 15 4/5 1/2 4/4 3 3 6 3 1       1 3 25
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA 22:55 7 3/4 0/2 1/2   3 3 2 1       3 1 7
21 SANDERS, RAKIM 17:18 10 3/4 0/4 4/4   2 2   2 1     2 2 8
23 ABASS, AWUDU DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
43 SIMON, KRUNOSLAV 26:21 16 2/6 2/3 6/6   5 5 7 1 1 2 1 2 3 25
Team           4   4     1         3
Totals 200:00 99 31/48 6/18 19/23 13 20 33 21 9 10 2 3 20 21 119
        64.6% 33.3% 82.6%
Head coach: REPESA, JASMIN
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 GREEN, ERICK 18:27 10 2/5 2/4     1 1 1             7
2 BIRCH, KHEM 14:27 11 5/6   1/2 7 1 8     1     1 2 17
4 YOUNG, PATRIC 10:15 2 1/1     1 1 2 1           3 8
6 PAPAPETROU, IOANNIS 12:44 5 1/1 1/3   1   1     1     3    
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 25:48 8 3/6 0/4 2/2 1 2 3 4   5     3 2 2
9 WATERS, DOMINIC 15:50 4 1/3 0/1 2/2       3   1     3 2 2
10 AGRAVANIS, DIMITRIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 9:43 5 2/5   1/2 1 2 3 1   2     3 2 2
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 27:30 16 4/9 2/3 2/3   2 2 1 2 2     2 3 13
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 27:16 11 1/4 1/2 6/6 5 3 8 1 2 1 2 1 3 4 19
17 MANTZARIS, VANGELIS 22:03 9   3/4   1 2 3 2   3     3   7
24 LOJESKI, MATT 15:57 2 1/4 0/4   3 1 4 2     1 1 1 2 2
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 83 21/44 9/25 14/17 21 17 38 16 4 16 3 2 22 20 82
        47.7% 36% 82.4%
Head coach: SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS

Head Coaches

REPESA, JASMIN
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
"We struggled under the boards early in the game, allowing them to grab 14 offensive rebounds. That's obvious, but in the second half, against the best defensive team in the Euroleague, we probably played the best game of our season, scoring almost 100 points and responding to their physicality. It's a win we needed. We were good at exploiting Pascolo's mismatch against Papapetrou. Then he played a fantastic game even when he was matched up with Birch, while Macvan kept defending Printezis."
SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"Congratulations to Milan. They deserved to win and won the game easily. They fought more than us, and they showed on the court they wanted to win more than us. Tonight our big problem was our defense, we were not very aggressive and we were not tough as we are most of the time. I can say only in the first period we played good defense, but after that it is very difficult to win on the road when you have such bad defense, allowing home team to score 58 points in the second half. There are some games that our opponents score 58 points in one game, not one half. We need to move past this game and focus on next games, but also get a good lesson after this loss and come back with good performances. I want to thanks the fans that travelled here to supports us, but unfortunately we did not give them back a win tonight."

Players

PASCOLO, DAVIDE
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
"It's a game we needed to give us confidence, but I'm happy also for myself because I still had to prove something in this EuroLeague. This is a game I will remember for a long time, since it was against some of the best players in the league like Printezis is at my position. But it was a team win with many players in double figures."