In its home finale, Virtus registered its biggest home win of the season
Virtus dominates Italian derby, 90-70, eliminates Milan

Virtus Segafredo Bologna dominated from start to finish, sinking the visiting EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 90-70 on Friday night. The win in the Italian derby improved Virtus to 9-24 ahead of the final round of the regular season, while this loss eliminated Milan, which dropped to a 16-17 record, from postseason contention.
Milan scored the first basket of the game, but that happened to be one of only two field goals in the first quarter, at the end of which Virtus led by double digits and never looked back. Matt Morgan led the scorers on the winning team with 16 points. Tornike Shengelia had 14 points, Will Clyburn and Ante Zizic scored 13 points apiece, while Nicola Akele had 10 points. Zach LeDay led Milan with 19 points, while Stefano Tonut and Giampaolo Ricci scored 10 apiece in the loss.
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Freddie Gillespie opened the scoring with a dunk, but that was the only basket Milan scored in the opening 5 minutes. Meanwhile, Will Clyburn scored 7 points on the other end, including a transition triple, to help Virtus open a 9-2 lead. Milan made 5 free throws but no field goals, while Clyburn and Tornike Shengelia scored inside and Matt Morgan from the outside to open an 18-7 advantage. The visitors ended their drought with a put-back layup from Guglielmo Caruso, but Marco Belinelli’s buzzer-beating jumper made it 22-9 after 10 minutes.
Shavon Shields opened the second quarter by making a floater, but Shengelia hit a jumper and set up Momo Diouf for an easy dunk and a 15-point margin. Shengelia had 5 more points, including a triple to open 31-25, before Nikola Mirotic and LeDay hit a triple apiece and Shields drained a long jumper. A three-point play from LeDay cut the deficit to 37-27, but Morgan scored 5 points to end the half, including a three-pointer to make it 44-29 at halftime.
Akele scored 7 points in the first 3 minutes and 20 seconds of the third quarter, including a corner triple, to open a 53-32 margin. A triple from Daniel Hackett gave the hosts a 58-34 lead, before Mirotic, Tonut and Ousmane Diop got the visitors going. However, Isaia Cordinier’s triple helped the hosts take a 65-42 lead into the final quarter, during which the lead grew to 70-42 and 73-45 after a triple from Achille Polonara. Milan never got closer than 19 points the rest of the way.