The 23-year-old EuroLeague rookie built on an impressive display in Round 18 by going for a career-high number of points in Round 19.
Giordano Bortolani provided a spark as Milan kept Bayern’s offense in check
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Regular Season
Round 19 of 34
Group Regular Season
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EA7 Emporio Armani Milan managed to restrict FC Bayern Munich’s offense in Round 19 of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, with the Italian side getting a big boost off the bench by Giordano Bortolani en route to a 76-62 triumph.
The 23-year-old Bortolani scored a career-high 12 points with 3 three-pointers in his 12th game in the competition, while Devon Hall led Milan with 19 points to help his team improve to 8-11.
“Giordano [Bortolani] gave us a big spark. But Devon Hall played an outstanding game. Everybody competed. For us it was a must win to stay alive and wait for our injured players,” said Milan head coach Ettore Messina, who was missing star players such as Nikola Mirotic, Shavon Shields, Maodo Lo and Billy Baron.
“Everybody contributed at least on defense, even those who didn’t have their best offensive night. We held them to a very low scoring game. We also got the tiebreaker. So, it’s a very big night. We continue to work and hopefully we will get better.”
A week to remember for Bortolani
Bortolani did his best Billy Baron impression with 3 three-pointers for the second consecutive game as he topped his previous career best of 11 points, which came earlier this week against Olympiacos Piraeus.
“Giordi came in and played with a lot of confidence,” Hall said of Bortolani, who has scored a combined 23 points in the last two games after netting 25 total points in his previous 10 appearances.
Frustrating Bayern with defense
Milan did enough on offense thanks to a strong defensive showing, holding Bayern to just 62 points, 17.6 points below the German side’s average. Bayern shot just 47.1% on two-pointers and made only 5-of-23 three-pointers for 21.7%.
Just as important was Milan holding its own on the glass against the number one rebounding team in the league. Bayern won the battle of the boards 33-30 and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds. But the guests really couldn’t punish Milan, though it did have a 12-2 advantage in second-chance points.
But Milan was able to get some easy points to not have to worry about Bayern’s set defense as much. After all, Milan outscored Bayern 8-0 on fastbreak points and 23-15 on points off turnovers.