Fabien Causeur doesn’t care about being 37 year old. He is screaming, hollering, leading and even more significantly he is scoring. Six threes on six attempts, a career-high, all of them when the team needed them including a corner theee at the end of the third quarter that was a back-breaker. Causeur scored 20 points, didn’t make any mistake and was one of three players with 20 or more points in a commanding 101-86 win over Red Star. It is the fourth win a row for Olimpia, six over the last seven games. “Causeur is playing with the enthusiasm of a follie which is remarkable for a player who has won it all. He is a role model,“ Coach Ettore Messina said.
Olimpia basically led for the length of the game. In the second half by as many as 21 points. Nico Mannion had a career night himself, 20 points and four threes. He set the tone early with 11 points in the first quarter. Then Nikola Mirotic had another gem of a game contributing a game-high 23 points. The other fell in line. “Shavon Shields had a beautiful game. He didn’t score much but he scored in crucial situations and defended well over everybody. When we will need him to score 20 points he will,” Messina said. Freddie Gillespie too had a great outing in the first half when he scored seven points in traffic.
Olimpia let Red Star come back a couple of times. In the first half they used an array of threes to get within four points. “At that point they scored on four of the next 12 possessions,” Messina pointed out. Defense was there when was really needed. Filip Petrusev, the best EuroLeague player for point per minute, has only two points on 1-for-5 shooting. The second comeback came late in the third and Mirotic responded with a three and a tip-in. Then Causeur did everything he could to generate an easy end to the game.
Olimpia finished the game with 15 made threes and 20 assists. “What we need is consistency. Historically we have always had a solid defense and some struggling at finding ways to score. Now it is the opposte. We know how we need to improve. Consistency is the key,” Messina said.
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