Bologna, 6 June 2022 – Coup of theArmani AX Milan which inaugurates the basketball championship finals beating Virtus Segafredo Bologna 66-62 at home and immediately snatching the advantage of the home factor in the series from the bianconeri. The match took off in the third quarter when Milan, taken by the hand from Shavon Shields (18 points including 10 in the quarter after the long break), he scored a partial 17-5 that gave her the inertia of the match.
Also finished at -13, however, Virtus never lifted their hands from the handlebars and, relying on Milos Teodosic (16 points) e Shengelia shop, returned to the fourth fraction at -2 missing the link with a bloody 0/2 in the line by Hackett. Olimpia obviously “thanked” and in the final point to point they placed the winning kidney stroke thanks to the experience of Datome (13 points) and to the direction of Rodriguez. The red and white, despite the bad night shooting from outside (3/23 from three) were the protagonists of a great defensive and rebounding performance (50-41 the calculation of the carom in favor of the guests who captured 17 offensive rebounds). Virtus, forced to chase for most of the match, instead paid the low percentages from the field (41% from two and 23% from three) and an opaque performance of some key men such as Belinelli, Cordinier, Hackett and Jaiteh .
The race
After just 80 ”from the start of the match Virtus is forced to deal with one first tile: Falling back after a shot Teodosic is fouled by Shields but gets an ankle injury that forces him to leave the pitch prematurely. On the other hand, Milan defends with physicality and great aggression, in attack focuses on the pick and roll between Rodriguez and Hines to do wrong and try to take the initial inertia of the match in hand (3-6). The cheering of the Segafredo Arena raises its decibels with the prompt return of Teodosic to the field, while Milan tries to dictate the pace of the match by speculating on the shooting errors of the bianconeri – who also jump for the return to the bench of a Toko Shengelia sore in the arm right – and making the ball circulate well in attack but fails to give the right acceleration to stretch. Virtus, at the sound of the first siren, thus finds herself with only three lengths to recover (10-13).
Even at the start of the second quarter the teams continue to fail in shooting and the match struggles to take off: Shields tries to take Milan’s attack by the hand, scoring six close points and giving away two possessions of advantage at Olimpia (17-21), but Virtus holds up the impact and first finds parity with Hackett’s long shot and then the advantage with Tessitori (24-23); a substantial balance that remains intact until the end of the first half, closed at +1 from Milan (27-28).
Upon returning to the field, Milan immediately tries to accelerate with Shavon Shields to always play the role of the main offensive terminal of the red and white who place a 12-3 closed by the hand of Hines and raise the bar of their advantage up to +8 forcing Scariolo to timeout. However, the minute of suspension called by the Brescia coach does not have the desired effects because Virtus continues to fight with the iron (more than 3 ‘without baskets for the Bolognese) and to find the correct spacing in attack, while Armani takes advantage of it to widen the gap of the deficit up to 13 lengths with five yarn stitches by Datome, arrived at the peak of a partial 17-5 (32-45). Stopping the bleeding and unlocking the Segafredo are four close points by Sampson and Belinelli. A mini-break that helps Virtus to loosen the reins a little but does not affect the confidence of Armani who enters the final 10 ‘ahead 40-50.
Alibegovic and Sampson try to break through the Milanese defense by rekindling the virtuous hopes with four points in a row at the dawn of the fourth quarter. Teodosic follows them closely with two more baskets for the Bolognese -5, but Olimpia is nothing short of present at the attack rebound and has the strength to repel Virtus’ attacks with the jabs and experience of Rodriguez and Datome who does not capitalize, however, a technician booed at Hackett (51-59). Segafredo collects and responds with a 6-0 fueled by Shengelia’s muscular plays. Hackett in the line even lacks parity with an unusual zero out of two and on the other hand the Armani breathes deeply with Bentil’s two free shots from the external +4 (57-61). The finish is in a sprint and it is the Armani who, thanks to free final by Melli and Hall gets his hands on the 1-0 point.