By Nikos Varlas / varlas@eurohoops.net
Alessandro Gentile was unstoppable (27 points on 8/12 shooting) and led Italy to the quarter finals with a 52-82 victory over Israel.
Italy outscored their opponents 28-9 in the third quarter and took a 29-point advantage to emphatically win the game. For the winners, who will now face the winner of the match between Lithuania and Georgia, Marco Belinelli had 14 points, while Gal Mekel was the top scorer for the losing squad with 20 points.
The Italians took an early lead in the game (13-22 in the first quarter) and retained their advantage in double digits at the end of the half (30-40). Simone Pianigiani’s squad was dominant in the third quarter (39-68) and had no problem to claim the easy victory and the qualification to the next round.