EuroLeague
For 25 minutes, Olimpia Under 18 in the Belgrade final attempted to overthrow the world. Against a Barcelona team with six foreigners and an objectively superior physicality, rather than being intimidated and succumbing as has happened to practically everyone this year, the red and white boys released courage and determination, managing to put the highly favored Barcelona in difficulty. It’s a group that deserves the wild card for the Next Gen finals in Berlin.
At the start of the match, Olimpia showed great spirit, responding to the initial 7-16 with a great comeback started by Riccardo Casella (eight points in a row) to scare the Blaugrana battleship. In the second quarter, thanks to a triple by Achille Lonati, Olimpia went up by six to close the first half of the match ahead 53-49. A stratospheric, unexpected partial that left us speechless. In the third quarter, Barcelona restored order. By scoring 35 points he turned the game around and then won it with full merit 104-85. But it was a lying result. Even when they were overwhelmed by the Blaugrana avalanche, Olimpia reacted and remained in the game. Six minutes from the end they were still at minus ten, two minutes later at minus 11. The defeat in the final does not change the history of this group which has experienced two incredible weeks, first winning the Italian Next Gen then reaching the final in Belgrade, ahead to all the Serbian battleships and surrendering only to a team resulting from a recruitment of years and above.
Denis Badalau had the satisfaction of leading all the scorers in the final, with 25 points and 27 rating to crown an exceptional tournament for the Romanian winger, in his second year in Milan. Samuele Miccoli made the team play. Olimpia was in physical difficulty, with him and Casella as guards, against the physical opponents. But Miccoli finished with seven assists, Casella scored 10 points.
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan-FC Barcelona 85-104
Olympiad: Alberti, Casella 10 (1/3, 2/5, 2/2, 3 r), Miccoli 4 (2/6, 0/2, 7 a), Karem 2 (1/1, 0/1), Toffanin 3 (1/2 from 3), Suigo 3 (0/2, 1/1), Lonati 8 (2/4, 1/9, 1/1, 3 r, 4 a), Garavaglia 13 (4/6, 1 /4, 2/2 6 r, 3 a, 2 rec), Josovic 15 (3/5, 3/9, 0/1, 9 r), Ceccato, Badalau 25 (7/12, 3/7, 2/ 6, 8 r), Van Elswik 2 (1/1, 0/1). All: Catalans
Barcelona: Kone 8, Villar, Sarr 12, Pluvinet 2, Grujcic 20, M. Gonzalez, Butajevas 15, D. Gonzalez, Keita 23, Omoaruna, Jakucionis 24, Garcia. All: Marin