2021-22Regular SeasonRound 13
ALBA Berlin 81
AX Armani Exchange Milan 76
December 03, 2021 CET: 20:00
Local time: 20:00 MERCEDES-BENZ ARENA

ALBA holds off Milan, 81-76

ALBA Berlin won consecutive games for the first time this season by holding off the visiting AX Armani Exchange Milan 81-76 on Friday night. The win took ALBA's record to 5-8 record, while Milan suffered its fourth consecutive loss, dropping to 8-5. ALBA took the lead for good early in the second quarter, built a 17-point lead in the third behind Marcus Eriksson, then in the fourth quarter made clutch stops and key shots after Milan closed to within a single point. Eriksson netted 21 points on 5-for-8 three-point shooting to lead the winners while Maodo Lo had 12 points and 6 assists. Malcolm Delaney scored 12 and Kyle Hines had 10 points for Milan.

Nicolo Melli and Delaney got Milan going with three-pointers but Eriksson answered with his own before Luke Sikma and Yovel Zoosman put ALBA up 11-8. Luigi Datome nailed a baseline jumper for the visitors that Christ Koumadje improved upon with 6 points, including a tip-in and an alley-oop dunk to open a 19-10 ALBA lead. Milan newcomer Ben Bentil scored inside and Sergio Rodriguez from outside to cut the difference to 19-15 after 10 minutes.

Milan opened the second quarter with a three-point play from Bentil and a fastbreak layup from Hines to take a 19-20 lead. Louis Olinde snapped a 0-10 run with a three-pointer for ALBA as the teams traded leads thanks to baskets from Johannes Thiemann and Delaney. A transition triple from Eriksson shot ALBA in front 33-27. Oscar da Silva scored inside and Eriksson knocked down another triple at 38-29. Delaney answered with a corner three, but Lo finished the first-half scoring with his team's fourth triple of the quarter for a 43-34 halftime edge.

Bentil hit a three-pointer for the visitors after the break, but Eriksson answered with his fourth from deep, then knocked down a fifth on as many attempts to make it 51-40. Sikma scored, then dished a pair of assists for Lo and Ben Lammers to open the lead to 60-43. Melli had a basket-plus-free throw combination to spark a 7-0 Milan run, cutting the margin to 10 points, but a triple from Tamir Blatt helped ALBA take a 67-56 lead into the fourth quarter.

Devon Hall opened the final stanza with a three-point play that Rodriguez matched for Milan with one shot. Hines added a layup to help cut the difference further, to 69-66. Sikma's three-pointer midway through the quarter gave ALBA breathing room and Olinde followed suit to make it 77-72. Hines and Hall scored inside to make get Milan as close as ever, 77-76, but Eriksson made both of his free throws and Lammers hit a baseline jumper with 35 seconds to go, sealing the deal.

Sikma, Eriksson keyed ALBA's win

Marcus Eriksson scored a game-high 21 points and was hot in the first three quarters. He made his first 5 three-point attempts and his off-balance jumper, which players make only when they look like they simply cannot miss, opened a 62-45 lead in the third quarter. Then there was Luke Sikma, who finished with 9 points, a game-high 7 assists and 6 rebounds. His passing created many easy baskets for his teammates, and along with Eriksson he was the main reason ALBA held a 17-point third-quarter lead, one which it had cling to but never relinquished.

Rebounding-and-run formula

ALBA entered the game ranked second-to-last among all EuroLeague teams in defensive rebounding. But in this game, that's where ALBA dominated most. The hosts outrebounded Milan 42-26, pulling down 12 offensive boards while holding the visitors to just 5. Such a rebounding display helped ALBA play to its strengths, running the floor and getting transition baskets.

Three-point shooting play key role

ALBA had a far better shooting night than Milan. The hosts made 11-of-28 three-point shots (39.3%) compared to Milan's 6-of-23 (26.1%). And while ALBA used three-pointers to build its lead, Milan's misses had plenty to do with the outcome. Milan was 5-for-14 from long range in the first three quarters, but then hit just 1 of 9 shots from downtown in the fourth. ALBA was 2-for-9 in the fourth quarter, but those shots by Luke Sikma and Louis Olinde came in the final 4 minutes of the game, in answer to Milan closing within 71-70. With no more forthcoming from the visitors, ALBA held onto its fifth victory of the season.

Maodo Lo - ALBA Berlin - EB21
Friday, December 3, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: PUKL,SASA; ROCHA, FERNANDO; BALAK, AMIT
Attendance: 2483
By Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin19242414
AX Armani Exchange Milan15182320
End of Quarter1234
ALBA Berlin19436781
AX Armani Exchange Milan15335676
ALBA Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 LO, MAODO 25:10 12 2/6 2/3 2/2   5 5 6 1 2   2 2 3 16
1 DA SILVA, OSCAR 13:37 4 2/4 0/1 0/1   1 1 1   2     1 1  
3 SMITH, JALEEN 12:39   0/2 0/4     2 2 2   3       2 -3
6 DELOW, MALTE 2:42                              
8 ERIKSSON, MARCUS 28:32 21 2/3 5/8 2/2   4 4 1 1 1     1 3 24
19 OLINDE, LOUIS 19:20 6   2/3   1 7 8     1 1   4 1 10
21 KOUMADJE, CHRIST 11:34 8 2/3   4/4 3 1 4             2 13
32 THIEMANN, JOHANNES 17:48 8 4/6 0/3   2 3 5 1         1 2 10
43 SIKMA, LUKE 24:23 9 2/4 1/3 2/2 3 3 6 7   1     1 2 18
45 BLATT, TAMIR 13:39 3   1/3   1   1     1     2 3 2
50 ZOOSMAN, YOVEL 17:58 6 2/2   2/2   3 3   1       4 2 8
55 LAMMERS, BEN 12:38 4 2/4     2   2 1         2   3
Team             1 1     2         -1
Totals 200:00 81 18/34 11/28 12/13 12 30 42 19 3 13 1 2 18 21 100
        52.9% 39.3% 92.3%
Head coach: GONZALEZ, ISRAEL
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
9 MELLI, NICOLO 20:20 8 2/4 1/3 1/1 2 5 7   1 1     3 1 9
10 GRANT, JERIAN 5:02   0/1                         -1
13 RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO 22:11 8 1/1 2/6     2 2 6 3       1 1 15
17 RICCI, GIAMPAOLO 17:33 6 3/6 0/2 0/1 1   1 1   1   1 4 1 -3
19 BILIGHA, PAUL 3:50                         1   -1
22 HALL, DEVON 20:38 7 3/6 0/1 1/1   3 3           2 2 6
23 DELANEY, MALCOLM 21:02 12 2/4 2/6 2/3       1   1     4 4 5
30 DANIELS, TROY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
31 SHIELDS, SHAVON 31:41 9 2/3 0/2 5/7   2 2 5 1 1     1 5 15
42 HINES, KYLE 29:19 10 4/7   2/2 1 2 3 2 2 1 2   2 1 14
50 BENTIL, BEN 8:58 8 2/3 1/1 1/2 1 5 6     1     2 2 11
70 DATOME, LUIGI 19:26 8 3/3 0/2 2/2   2 2     2     1 1 6
Team                                
Totals 200:00 76 22/38 6/23 14/19 5 21 26 15 7 8 2 1 21 18 76
        57.9% 26.1% 73.7%
Head coach: MESSINA, ETTORE

Head Coaches

GONZALEZ, ISRAEL
ALBA Berlin
"I am very happy with the performance of the team. I am happy for the players. We don't know how the games will go, but our idea is to keep fighting for 40 minutes and see how it will end. Today, we had a lot of effort, and we were able to arrive at the end against a very good team like Milan. And after the win, I am much more happy. I think the rhythm was the key factor. In the first half, we played at our rhythm, pressing the ball, pressing full-court, trying to run all the time, not stopping the ball on offense, and we continued like that in the third quarter. Then they made it play difficult for our offense, but we managed to get a win."
MESSINA, ETTORE
AX Armani Exchange Milan
"Congratulations to Coach Gonzalez and ALBA. They played a good game. They were up for a great part of the game, and they outrebounded us very seriously, which was what cost us the game. Unfortunately, we played for one more game very low-level defense and allowed them to play easily until the middle of the third quarter. That's when we raised our aggressiveness. We were more connected and we got a lot of stops. And like it always happens, when you play defense, you're also more aggressive on offense. And that's what allowed us to come back. But until that moment, we were very poor on offense. And we were, unfortunately, very inefficient defensively. And that's something we have to fix, the basic fundamentals: one-on-one, weak side, box out. There's nothing strategy-wise that is more important than taking care of the fundamentals. So, we're surely in a bad moment and we need to keep working and move on to the next game and hopefully raise our level."

Players

THIEMANN, JOHANNES
ALBA Berlin
"That was a great team performance today. Marcus Eriksson carried us through the game in places today and Louis Olinde helped us enormously in the final minutes, but in the end we won the game as a collective. The win shows us again that we can keep up with any opponent in the EuroLeague and don't have to hide."
ERIKSSON, MARCUS
ALBA Berlin
"These two wins in a row against extremely good teams are important for the team. The most important for us is playing our game; keep the rhythm high and play in transition. Milan made a big push in the second half. It was big for us to stay calm in the end. Louis Olinde took some rebounds, made some big defensive plays at the end. So we are very happy."
SIKMA, LUKE
ALBA Berlin
"I think everybody stepped up today. It was a great team effort, which is what you need to compete against a team like Milan. I was really happy. Everyone had their moments. We stayed committed even when they made the run at the end, I am really happy with the win. Everyone knows Eriksson's shooting. He is so magnetic for the defense, everyone is watching him and it gets all the other guys open. He is such an unselfish player; sometimes he knows he is just a decoy. What really helps us is he does so many other things that people don't know about. Defensively, being in the right spots. He is not the most physical guy but he bothers guys with his length. Just a smart player, so I'm really happy to have him back. We are near the bottom of the league in defensive rebounding, and it is something we know we need to improve. So we knew it was a point of emphasis and we are slowly getting better. Against a really good team like this, you really need to get control of the boards. To get stops, you need to get rebounds; it really gets us going in transition. I am happy with how we did it. We have a lot of our big guys back, which really helps, but definitely it was a committed effort."
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