By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Despite a slow start, Spain bounced back and with a late surge grabbed a 67-60 win against Italy in the FIBA World Cup Second Round. Spain and Serbia both advanced to quarterfinals with a 4-0 record in Group J and will play each other for the first place.
Juancho Hernangomez led the winning side with 16 points while Ricky Rubio was right behind with 15 points. Sergio Llull – who was doubtful for this game due to right wrist pain – added 11 points.
Italy had a 56-52 lead with four minutes left but Spain took over the crunch time. They made a 10-0 run (62-56) thanks to great defense as well as some easy points through transition and free throws with which they sealed the deal.
“They put pressure on us and it was too difficult for us on offense. They stopped our offense. In the end, we had back situations in reading for our offense. In the end, maybe we were a little bit tired with our guys playing more than 30 minutes. You have to be there in the final minutes against a great team”, coach Meo Sacchetti explained.
Danilo Gallinari scored 15 points for Italy in addition to Luigi Datome‘s 12. They lacked a bit of Marco Belinelli who scored seven points but had a bad shooting night (3-16 FG).
“Victor (Claver) did a great job on (Danilo) Gallinari. Sergio (Llull) and Rudy (Fernandez), who were both doubtful until this morning, did a great job on (Marco) Belinelli. And overall the team did a fantastic defensive job. We were down four with 4 minutes to go and we had the 15-4 run right at the end, which says a lot about our togetherness, our toughness, our commitment. It was not the best offensive game that one may see but I give a lot of value to what my players did defensively.”, coach Scariolo said.
Although Italy kicked off the game better with a 15-5 run, Spain quickly recovered and tied the score by the end of the first quarter (18-18). It was a balanced game afterward as neither side could gain a significant advantage. Italy had the minimal lead at halftime (31-30) mostly thanks to Gallinari’s ten points.
Spain went ahead 46-38 after the break led by Juancho who nailed ten points in the third quarter but the Italians didn’t allow them to increase the gap. They cut the distance to just two points (50-48) in front of the final period and pushed the game to an exciting finish.
Game Highlights:
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL