Basketball, Super Cup: Virtus beats Milan in overtime: third consecutive final

Milan-Bologna, act I of a potentially very long series of crossings between the championship and the Euroleague. It is an appetizer very far from what the two big names in our championship could really be when chemistry and experience have shaped them. The tactical level is still low. But, on the plan emotional and of intangiblesthere is already everything that is expected within one of the most heated and historical rivalries of our basketball. Physicality, hardness, intensity, iron defenses. And a crazy desire to never give up. Not even when the situation seems desperate.

Virtus takes a small revenge after the knockout in the final-Scudetto winning the game twice. It does comeback in regular timeresurrecting in the last and a half period after a first part of the match experienced at the limit of asphyxiation. And he repeats it with authority in overtimein turn suffocating Milan and running away with merit, splendid in shrugging off the frustration at the almost Hollywood-style hookup on the siren.

Semi Nail Polisharrived with the stigmata of the defensive specialist, proves to be a versatile and multifaceted player in the European context: 17 points, 9 reboundsand continuous and intense activity with the ball in hand. Jordan Mickey (13 + 7) moves with surgical precision in the rare gaps left by the shrewd defense of Melli and Hines. And Ismael Bako (10 + 9 off the bench) provides that dose of verticality and athleticism which has always bothered the Olimpia of Messina management. But the truth difference-maker and maybe Isaiah Cordinierdecisive with his inventions from the dribble in turning the inertia of the game in the middle of the third period, when Virtus seems to give clear signals of a slow downward slide.

Olimpia, for its part, throws it to the wind a double-digit advantage built between the two initial quarters with two big breaks (9-0 and 11-0) that light up a game with a lethargic start. It already owns, like Bologna, one solid defensive consistencyespecially in the quintets led by Kyle Hinesbut it doesn’t have the lucidity, the mechanisms, and, above all, the personality to manage the margin and point-to-point moments. Devon Hall (19 points, 4/7 from the arc) goes crazy in the first half hitting in a precise, but impromptu way. And the whole offensive system looks like bewildered without its natural leader (Shavon Shields), its primary director (Kevin Pangos) and his experienced veteran (Gigi Datome). Why yes: the absences, even if numerically lower, weigh a lot in the lack of play of a team that has yet to enter Naz Mitrou-Long (2 points, 0/9 shooting) and understand how to turn on Billy Baron (12 con 2/11). The farewell of Sergio Rodriguezvirtually irreplaceable for the overall value of his red and white three-year period, is still a bleeding wound.

EA7 Emporio Armani Milan-Virtus Segafredo Bologna 64-72 OT

• Milano: Davies 4, Melli 6, Hall 19, Thomas 3, Baron 12; Hines 10, Mitrou-Long 2, Baldasso 3, Tonut 2, Ricci 2, Biligha 1. In: Alviti. All.: Messina.
• Bologna: Pajola 2, Lundberg 5, Ojeleye 17, Mickey 13, Weems 2; Bako 10, Cordinier 12, Mannion 5, Belinelli 4, Camara 2. N.e.: Menalo, Ruzzier. All.: Scariolo.