The home side drew inspiration from some unlikely sources to defeat its perennial Italian rival in the Derby d'Italia.
Bench trio shined for Virtus in impressive win over Milan
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Regular Season
Round 8 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Virtus Segafredo Bologna continued its good start to the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season with an 86-79 home win over EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in the Derby d’Italia in Round 8, largely thanks to an unfancied trio which came off the bench.
Milan dominated most of the first half on the back of a sound performance from Shavon Shields, but Virtus gained the upper hand before the interval after Awudu Abass rocked the visitors with lethal three-point shooting while Ognjen Dobric came up with a dazzling all-round display.
Abass scored 11 of his 14 points in the opening two periods, while Dobric amassed 8 points to go with 4 rebounds, 2 assists and as many steals. Milan threw away its lead and trailed 45-40 at halftime, but there seemed to be a way back as the visitors scored the opening 6 points in the third quarter.
However, they were undone by a magnificent second-half performance from Iffe Lundberg. The Dane lit up the contest with 19 points, all of which came after the break, and 7 of them came in crunch time. A three-pointer, a slam-dunk and a pair of free throws meant Lundberg netted his team’s last 7 points, forcing Milan into submission.
“We knew coming into the game that it would be tough against our great rival Milan,” Lundberg said in a flash courtside interview after the game. “We talked in the locker room [at halftime] that we would need to keep the same resilience in the second half. We were up by 5 and then we slowed down a little bit. Energy was the key and whenever I was on the court, I brought that to help the team win.”
Virtus head coach Luca Banchi was delighted with his side’s win. “This win means a lot because we all knew it would take something special to beat Milan,” he said. “They approached the game with incredible focus, but we responded in a great way. A big effort from everybody and now the most important thing is to recuperate and maintain our focus.”
Visiting head coach Ettore Messina, meanwhile, lamented how his team has made a habit of throwing away leads. “I want to congratulate Virtus for winning a tough game and I want to thank Luca [Banchi] for a classy gesture ahead of the game to walk on to the court together with me,” Messina said during the post-game press conference.
“Once again, we wasted our lead and this must be the sixth or seventh game that we’ve lost in the fourth quarter. Always the same way. Lundberg was of course the key, but poor defense in the fourth quarter cost us the game.”