The trio played key roles for Coach Messina's team to defeat Anadolu Efes.
Hall, Tonut, Poythress stepped up in Milan victory
Straipsnis
3 Minutė skaityti
Regular Season
Round 9 of 34
Group Regular Season
w
l
w
l
l
l
w
w
l
l
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan knows that its top stars will be there up for big games, but the performances of Devon Hall, Stefano Tonut and Alex Poythress against Anadolu Efes Istanbul showed they can contribute when needed as well.
The trio helped Milan deliver one of its best games of the season in a 92-76 home win to improve to 3-6. Hall, Tonut and Poythress combined for 29 of Milan’s 31 points off the bench to go along with 9 rebounds and 9 assists.
“The players from the bench really gave us a big push. Tonut and Devon Hall really played in a matter that helped us a lot to win this game. Also Alex Poythress,” said Milan head coach Ettore Messina.
Hall matched his season high of 15 points to go along with 3 rebounds and 5 assists in displaying his high-level scoring and playmaking skills.
Tonut delivered in the energy department as the team was kind of sluggish in the second game of the two-round week. He finished with 8 points - including the final back-breaking three-pointer - 3 rebounds and 3 assists.
And Poythress chipped in 6 points on 3-of-3 shooting, 3 rebounds and 1 assist. The big man really helped Milan’s defense down the stretch, especially with his athleticism.
The thing that Milan might remember most from this game was the fourth quarter. It not only scored 29 points but more importantly Milan held an Efes team with lots of weapons to just 15 points.
“Dev stepped up, Tonut stepped up. That fourth quarter everybody contributed, especially Nic [Melli]. This season is a process. We’re not going to be perfect from the start. Hopefully, we can build on this and keep stacking up wins,” said Shavon Shields, whose 18 points paced five scorers in double figures.
In the end, the message from this victory was everybody is needed - whether that’s scoring, rebounding, energy or defense.
“Everybody gave something. This is the only way we can do something. We did it this game, we did it against Valencia and Olympiacos,” Messina said referring to the team’s previous two wins. “We need to do it a little more to make up the ground we lost along the way. Today was a good team win.”