2019-20Regular SeasonRound 5
ALBA Berlin 78
AX Armani Exchange Milan 81
October 29, 2019 CET: 20:00
Local time: 20:00 MERCEDES-BENZ ARENA

Milan turns offense on, holds off ALBA

AX Armani Exchange Milan extended its winning streak to four games after holding on to a 78-81 road win over ALBA Berlin on Tuesday night. Milan improved to 4-1 on the season, while ALBA lost its fourth straight game in dropping to 1-4. ALBA led for the majority of the first three quarters before Milan hit 4 triples in a 1-13 run bridging third and fourth quarters and never relinquished the lead. Sergio Rodriguez paced Milan with 17 points, Luis Scola had 14 points and 6 rebounds, while Nemanja Nedovic netted 12 in his first game back from injury. Peyton Siva led ALBA with 20 points, while Rokas Giedratisi scored 18 in the losing effort.

Milan scored the first 7 points of the game, but ALBA replied by hitting 4 three-pointers – a pair from Giedraitis and one piece from Siva and Tim Schneider – to take a 14-11 lead. Aaron White answered with the first three for Milan and Rodriguez hit a last-second triple to make it 18-17 after 10 minutes. In the second quarter, baskets were few and far between. ALBA held Milan scoreless for almost 6 minutes and did not allow a single field goal for more than 8 minutes. However, the hosts did not manage to score much, either. A triple from Tyler Cavanaugh and a third downtown dagger from Giedraitis opened a 31-23 lead before Amedeo Della Valle hit a corner triple for the visitors as ALBA took a 33-26 edge into halftime.

Milan started melting the deficit early in the third quarter with an outside shot from Michael Roll and with Scola scoring inside. After Luke Sikma and Rodriguez traded triples, another three-pointer from Roll followed by two more close-range baskets from Scola put Milan in front 43-44. ALBA restored its lead with a three-pointer from Giedraitis and a three-point play from Johannes Thiemann, but Andrea Cinciarini, Vladimir Micov and Nedovic all hit a three-pointer apiece to give the visitors a 50-53 lead entering the fourth quarter. Nedovic hit another one early in the fourth to make it 50-57 and - after Siva scored 6 points, including a triple, Nedovic nailed his third and fourth shot from long range to make it 59-67. ALBA went inside more often to get closer before a transition triple from Niels Giffey cut it to 73-75 with 18 seconds to go. But Rodriguez made 6 from the free-throw line without a miss in the remaining time to secure Milan's victory.

An offensive turnaround

Milan scored just 26 points in the entire first half, then went on to score 55 points in the second. Milan outscored its first-half effort in each of the second-half quarters - scoring 27 points in the third, and 28 points in the fourth quarter.

Nedovic stars in return

Nemanja Nedovic made his season debut and turned out to be a difference-maker, making all 4 of his three-pointers and scoring all 12 of his points in the final 11 minutes of the game before fouling out.

Rodriguez milestone

Rodriguez scored 8 of his 17 points in the final minute of the game, and in the process became only the 12th man in EuroLeague history to reach 2,500 points for his career.

Low twos and high threes

In an unusual turn of events, ALBA and Milan combined to make 26 three-pointers and just 23 two-point shots in this game. ALBA made just 9 of 28 two-point attempts, one above its all-time low. On the other hand, 14 triples tied the ALBA club record for three-point shots made.

Next up

Both teams play again on Friday. Milan returns home to play FC Barcelona Lassa, while ALBA travels to Spain to face Real Madrid.

Luis Scola - AX Armani Exchange Milan - EB19
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: RYZHYK, BORYS; PEREZ, EMILIO; RADOJKOVIC, JOSIP
Attendance: 9351
By Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin18151728
AX Armani Exchange Milan1792728
End of Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin18335078
AX Armani Exchange Milan17265381
ALBA Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MASON, MAKAI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
3 SIVA, PEYTON 26:22 20 1/4 3/8 9/9   1 1 2 1 3     4 6 15
5 GIFFEY, NIELS 23:41 3 0/3 1/2     1 1 1 2 1     4 3 1
9 MATTISSECK, JONAS 7:39 4 1/1 0/1 2/2 2   2 1   1       1 6
10 SCHNEIDER, TIM 16:20 3   1/3     2 2   1       1   3
15 HERMANNSSON, MARTIN 23:45 7 1/4 1/6 2/2 1   1 5 1 2     3 2 3
25 OGBE, KENNETH 10:53 2 1/3 0/1   1 1 2   1 1     1 2 2
31 GIEDRAITIS, ROKAS 29:46 18 2/6 4/7 2/2 1 5 6   3   1 2   1 20
32 THIEMANN, JOHANNES 11:15 7 1/1 1/2 2/3 1 4 5     1     2 2 9
34 CAVANAUGH, TYLER 7:11 3   1/3             1     1   -1
35 NNOKO, LANDRY 23:45 2 1/2     1 5 6 2 1 3 1   2 2 8
43 SIKMA, LUKE 19:23 9 1/4 2/4 1/2 4 2 6 4         2 2 13
Team           2   2               2
Totals 200:00 78 9/28 14/37 18/20 13 21 34 15 10 13 2 2 20 21 81
        32.1% 37.8% 90%
Head coach: GARCIA RENESES, AITO
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
AX Armani Exchange Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
00 DELLA VALLE, AMEDEO 16:55 3 0/2 1/2         2 1 2     2 1  
5 MICOV, VLADIMIR 20:44 9 2/5 1/5 2/2   4 4 4   3 1   3 3 8
6 BILIGHA, PAUL DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 19:51 5 2/4   1/1 2 3 5 1 1 1   1 2 2 8
9 MORASCHINI, RICCARDO 7:15           3 3 1 1 1       1 5
10 ROLL, MICHAEL 25:00 8 1/4 2/5     3 3   1       2 1 5
13 RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO 27:50 17 2/4 2/5 7/7 1 3 4 4 1 5   1 1 5 19
15 TARCZEWSKI, KALEB 25:48 7 2/2   3/4 4 5 9   1 1 1   3 2 15
16 NEDOVIC, NEMANJA 22:35 12 0/2 4/7     1 1     1     5 2 4
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA 9:00 3   1/1         1         2   2
30 WHITE, AARON 5:41 3 0/2 1/1   1   1     1         1
40 SCOLA, LUIS 19:21 14 5/7 0/1 4/4 2 4 6 3   4     1 3 18
Team           1 5 6               6
Totals 200:00 81 14/32 12/27 17/18 11 31 42 16 6 19 2 2 21 20 91
        43.8% 44.4% 94.4%
Head coach: MESSINA, ETTORE

Head Coaches

GARCIA RENESES, AITO
ALBA Berlin
"The first thing is to congratulate Milan. The second thing is they scored a lot of three-point shots in the second half. Perhaps we thought they wouldn’t score that much because in the first half they only shot 3 of 11. But the second half was different and they scored a lot. We were competing in scoring with them. You score, now I score. Instead, we should have put more pressure on defense like is our style."
MESSINA, ETTORE
AX Armani Exchange Milan

"This was a two-faced game. In the first half, we were probably too tight and we overthought the game. We did not play loose. ALBA is an excellent team and is very well-coached – as always with Coach Aito. Very organized, very aggressive and shoot high volume threes. In the second half, my players played with more calm, confidence. They needed to see the ball go through the net a few times and they got poised at one point. We had a very good third quarter and a very good second half scoring 55 points after a tight first half. I want to congratulate my players because it is not easy to win on the road. It is never easy to win in the EuroLeague whether you are at home or on the road."

"I think my players relaxed in the second half and played according to their level. They are very good players, they just needed to find a little more confidence, see the ball go through the net a couple of times. They played a great second half, they deserved this game against a very good ALBA team. When you win, everything looks good. When you lose, it does not. All these games could have gone either way and that is the way the EuroLeague is, very close games and when you escape with a win you have to be happy."

Players

SIKMA, LUKE
ALBA Berlin
"I think the difference was a lot of little plays. I think we showed we can score on guys. In the second quarter, it was a little bit misleading, they missed some open shots. They knew they would come back, it would not last forever. I think we did pretty good defensively, but down the stretch, they made some plays. All you can do is learn from this one. It is going to be a tall order winning in Madrid. This is going to be tough about this season, we are accustomed to winning games the last couple of years and it is going to be tough to get wins, especially on the road. And it is easy to get down on yourself after a loss, especially one like this where we were so close."
RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO
AX Armani Exchange Milan
"I am very happy. We are starting the right way, it was not the easy way, we kind of started slow, but we turned it up in the second half and played a very good second half. We were not doing the things we prepared. We became more aggressive after halftime and it was a great win. On Friday against Barcelona will be a tough game. They are one of the most talented teams in Europe and playing well. We have to go step by step and game by game, try to have fun and win."
SCOLA, LUIS
AX Armani Exchange Milan
"They were very aggressive, but that creates some space on the rolls and kick-outs. We were not making shots and not making the right plays in the beginning of the game. We adjusted at halftime and it was a lot better in the second half. We just hit a couple of shots and we made the right rolls and we were a little bit more aggressive. Once we hit a couple, things started turning around and everything looked better for us. We were able to get momentum and win the game. It is fun. I like to play basketball, I like the EuroLeague, I am happy about the challenge I have in front of me and I am excited. I am enjoying it."