Happy Casa Brindisi ends Olimpia Milano win streak

Happy Casa Brindisi ended Olimpia Milano’s unbeaten run in the Italian Serie A on Sunday.

D’angelo Harrison poured in 20 points and added eight rebounds and five assists, while Derek Willis and Darius Thompson scored 16 apiece in Brindisi’s 88-82 away victory. Nick Perkins had a 13-point effort.

With the victory, Happy Casa Brindisi, coached by Frank Vitucci, matched Olimpia Milano, which set the pace atop the table earlier this autumn, for the best league record (11-1).

For Olimpia Milano, Luigi Dotome scored 16 points and Zach Leday contributed 14 and nine rebound. Shavon Shields provided 13 points and eight assists.

Key sequence for Happy Casa Brindisi

While Olimpia Milano led 40-36 at halftime, its foe had the better third quarter, outscoring the hosts 27-17 over the next 10 minutes to grab momentum.

Milano rests some key players

Ettore Messina, the Olimpia Milano coach, utilized his reserves quite extensively in the match. Malcolm Delaney and Kyle Hines sat out the contest. The club was playing its sixth game in 13 days, including EuroLeague action.

Moreover, Sergio Rodriguez remains sidelined with an injury.

Poor 3-point shooting hurt Messina’s squad, which made 9 of 27 from long range.

“Unfortunately, it’s not a good loss,” Messina insisted. “It’s a loss provoked by the almost 90 points we allowed, and not because we missed three key players. I’m taking responsibility for resting them after the tough week … but we lost because our defense was unacceptable. Brindisi played with attention, efficiency, attacked us off the dribble and took the shots it wanted to take.

“I hope this is a wake-up call, we need to defend every game, not one game on and one game off.”