Undefeated so far, Serbia seemed to be heading for their fourth victory of this 2023 World Cup, Svetislav Pesic’s troops having taken a lead of up to 16 points (60-44) in the third quarter.
But the Squadra azzurra is always a complicated formation to maneuver, especially when it finds rhythm.
In difficulty over the last two games, with a 9/32 in aggregate, Simone Fontecchio has thus found the target, by going for more shots at mid-distance. And with the help of Luigi Datome, the gap was reduced to a small possession (62-59) at the start of the last ten minutes of the match…
With the momentum, and a disgusting Simone Fontecchio (30 points, 7 rebounds), Italy thus took the lead in the last quarter, even if a miss from the transalpine leader offered the winning shot to Serbia.
Bogdan Bogdanovic 1/13 away…
But Stefan Jovic’s 3-point shot was far too complicated, and too far, and Gianmarco Pozzecco could unleash all his enthusiasm on the Italy bench (78-76). With this success, the Squadra azzurra returns to equality with Serbia, with three victories for a single defeat.
” What can I say ? I am very happy with this victory, we did a great job together today.” reacted the hero of the day after the match. “We don’t care about being down 16 points, we don’t care about playing badly. We will fight until the end”.
The Italian smiles contrasted logically with the Serbian grimaces, which put themselves in danger in this group which also contains the Dominican Republic of Karl-Anthony Towns (3-0) and Puerto Rico (2-1).
“We had some really good moments in the game, especially in the third quarter. But we made a lot of mistakes in the second half, and we made some stupid decisions.” admitted Ognjen Dobric. “They were just stronger and smarter than us. »
Serbia also lost from afar, with a very weak 7/31 (23%) marked by the horrible 1/13 of Bogdan Bogdanovic…
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