Milan continues to roll with win at Khimki

AX Armani Exchange Milan continued its strong run of play in knocking off Khimki Moscow Region 93-102 for its fourth win in the last five games. This game was a makeup of their originally scheduled ROund 8 game. Shavon Shields scored a career-high 26 points while Zach Leday poured in 18 points in helping Milan improve to 7-4. Malcolm Delaney added 16 points and 7 assists and Kevin Punter chipped in 15 points in the victory. Khimki has now lost four straight games to drop to 2-10. Jonas Jerebko amassed 20 points with 7 rebounds, Errick McCollum tallied 18 points, Jordan Mickey had 17 points and Alexey Shved delivered a double-double of 13 points and 13 assists along with 5 rebounds in the loss.

Kaleb Tarczewski dunked home the first points of the game for Milan with Devin Booker answering at the other end. Shved’s three-pointer gave the hosts the lead for the first time at 5-4. Tarczewski continued his strong start with two more baskets and then a third in a 0-8 Milan run to take an 8-16 advantage. Jerebko’s triple snapped a nearly 3-minute scoreless drought but Shields and Luigi Datome hit from deep and the visitors were up 20-28 after 10 minutes. McCollum started the second quarter with a three-point play for the hosts, but Shields’s triple gave Milan its first double-digit lead and Kyle Hines’s dunk made it 23-35. The margin was 27-39 when Khimki worked to get Booker and Mickey more involved and the big man duo combined for 11 points in a 17-6 run to make it 44-45. Milan punched back with triples on three straight possessions - including 2 from Shields - and the gap was 44-54. But McCollum drained a triple just before the halftime buzzer and it was 47-54 at the break.

Jerebko opened the second half with a layup before Leday hit a three-pointer at the other end. Leday added 5 more points while Jerebko remained hot with 2 three-pointers to bring Khimki within 59-64. The margin was up to 59-68 after Punter’s free throws, but Shved also hit from deep and added a free throw to trim it to 63-68. Janis Timma added a triple for the hosts, who were within 68-72 after 30 minutes. Shields started the fourth quarter with a jumper and back-to-back three-pointers from Michael Roll pushed the cushion back to double digits, 70-80. Timma responded with a triple, but Delaney punched back with a three-pointer of his own and two straight Shields scores had the advantage at 75-87 with 6 minutes left. Leday added two more scores and the guests were still up 82-93 with less than 3 minutes to play. Mickey followed with back-to-back three-pointers and all of a sudden the difference was 88-93. Punter came up with a dagger corner three-pointer plus free throw and Delaney followed with a layup for an 88-99 lead inside the final minute.

Milan's season-high 28 assists

Milan shared the ball well as it dished out 28 assists as a team - 10 more than its previous best this season when the Italian side collected 18 assists against ALBA Berlin. And Milan did it without playmaking ace Sergio Rodriguez. The 102 points scored was the club’s highest ever in a EuroLeague game without overtimes as the visitor.

Pivotal performer

Shavon Shields was excellent all game for Milan as he scored a career-high 26 points; his previous best was 22 against Khimki for Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz in January 2020. Shields needed just 11 field attempts to do it - hitting all six of his two-pointers and making 4 of 5 three-pointers as well as both of his free throws. He added 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals in picking up an index rating of 34 - also a career-best.

Telling numbers

Milan drained 13 of 19 three-pointers (68.4%) while committing only 8 turnovers. Milan also made Khimki pay for its turnovers with a 24-11 advantage in points off turnovers.

Next games

Khimki remains at home for its next EuroLeague game when it hosts Russian rival CSKA Moscow on Friday, December 11 for Round 13 action. Milan stays on the road in Round 13 to face FC Barcelona in Spain on the same night.