The 33-year-old forward led the visitors with a vintage performance
Nikola Mirotic rolled back the years as Milan shined in Istanbul
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Regular Season
Round 12 of 34
Group Regular Season
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EA7 Emporio Armani Milan enjoyed its third straight win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and made it five out of the last six, as the Italian side continued its good run of form with an impressive 85-91 road defeat of Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul on the back of 29 points from player of the game Nikola Mirotic.
Mirotic scored all his points in the opening three quarters and then turned on his defense in the fourth, having finished just 2 points shy of his career high of 31 as he also racked up 9 rebounds.
Zach LeDay came up big in the fourth quarter when he netted 11 of his 19 points as Milan won the battle of the boards 36-32 and dished out 22 assists against Fenerbahce’s 17, prompting Mirotic to heap praise on his teammates while acknowledging he too was inspired by the occasion.
“I needed a big game in a big arena against a team playing probably the best basketball in Europe right now, so I was very motivated,” Mirotic said in a post-game courtside interview. “I think we did a great job as a team and I am proud of what we have achieved in the last couple of weeks. I really hope that we can continue to make progress.”
Mirotic also revealed that he was fired up for a personal battle with Fenerbahce counterpart Nigel Hayes-Davis, who was restricted to just 8 points on 2-of-8 shooting from the floor.
“I was very motivated to perform against Nigel because he’s been playing great lately and it was always going to be a great matchup,” said the Montenegrin-born sharpshooter. “We now have two huge home games coming up and I hope we’re going to be ready. We believe in each other and trust the coaching staff in what they are asking us to do.”
Milan head coach Ettore Messina was also pleased with his team’s hard-working approach. “The team played with no fear and with togetherness, as everybody had their moments,” he said. “Obviously, our leaders had a great game, but we competed as a team and I am very happy because we are progressing every day.”
Messina’s opposite number Sarunas Jasikevicius conceded that complacency might have crept into Fenerbahce after six successive wins, some of which came after the Turkish team was forced to dig deep into its resources.
Oddly enough, Fenerbahce – which slipped to 9-3 – has suffered all three defeats on home court. The Turkish side could plausibly claim that the 76-81 reverse against reigning EuroLeague champion Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens was not exactly a shock, but defeats by Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade and Milan were certainly not in the script.
“We probably didn’t prepare the team well and perhaps there comes a point in the season when you are feeling too good about yourself,” a grim Jasikevicius said in his post-game comments. “Most likely, you are going to get punished in these situations more often than not.”