The hosts remained calm from the line to clinch it in the closing stages
Mirotic, Shields lift Milan over Monaco, 86-80
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EA7 Emporio Armani Milan returned from the break with a hard-fought 86-80 win over AS Monaco at Unipol Forum on Thursday night. The visitors took an 18-19 lead into the second quarter, when Milan bounced back and outscored Monaco 31-23. Vassilis Spanoulis’s side grabbed a 77-78 edge with 1:51 remaining, but Milan remained calm from the line to clinch the win. Ettore Messina’s team improved to 15-12, while Monaco maintained the head-to-head tiebreak advantage but dropped to 16-11.
Nikola Mirotic led all scorers with 22 points, Shavon Shields recorded 19 and Zach LeDay added 10. Elie Okobo paced Monaco with 16 points, 14 of which were scored in the last quarter, with Mike James netting 15.
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A red-hot Jordan Loyd nailed 3 triples, with James and Jaron Blossomgame opening their accounts too for a 4-13 lead. But Milan tied things up, as Shields and Mirotic replied with a three each, with Nico Mannion and Fabien Causeur netting a layup apiece to make it 14-14. But Matthew Strazel scored 5 straight points off the bench for an 18-19 edge after 10 minutes.
Causeur and Georgios Papagiannis traded triples to open the second quarter before Armoni Brooks drilled one of his own for a 24-22 lead. Petr Cornelie responded with 5 straight points including a one-handed slam to posterize Freddie Gillespie, 26-29. A trade of blows followed, with Papagiannis taking his tally to 5 points as the visitors maintained a 33-34 lead. Daniel Theis opened his Monaco account with a slam, but Mirotic, Shields and Stefano Tonut drained a triple each to put Milan ahead, 44-38. James ended Milan’s 9-0 run with a midrange jumper, but Shields nailed one from deep and Mirotic scored inside for a 49-42 cushion at halftime.
Mannion added 5 points to his tally for Milan’s first double-digit lead of the night, 54-44. Shields netted three buckets in a row for a 62-52 cushion. Back-to-back baskets from Gillespie were followed by inside scores from Papagiannis and Okobo, who trimmed the deficit to 68-61 heading into the closing quarter.
The visitors started strong in the fourth, as Okobo bagged 5 consecutive points before a three by Strazel and another 5 points from the former tied it at 74-74. Mirotic answered with one from downtown, but Okobo made 2 of 2 from the line and Alpha Diallo scored inside to put Monaco in front, 77-78. Mirotic completed a three-point play on the other end, but Okobo responded from the charity stripe, 80-80. Shields, LeDay and Mirotic stayed ice-cold from the line to seal the outcome.