AGI – A real company was needed, but this time the company did not arrive. Italbasket is overwhelmed 100-63 by the United States in the quarterfinals of the 2023 World Cup and is forced to interrupt her dream here. Nothing to do for coach Gianmarco Pozzecco’s team in front of the NBA stars coached by Steve Kerr, who practically dominate from the beginning to the end of the match.
Top scorer Bridges with 24 points in just over 18 minutes with an 8/11 from the field, followed by Haliburton author of 18 points with a 6/8 from beyond the arc. After Serbia, the USA are the second team to reach the semifinals, where they will face the winner of Germany-Latvia, while the loser of this challenge will face Italy in one of the remaining four matches for the assignment from 5 to ‘8 place.
The Azzurri start with character and in attack they immediately find 5 points from Tonut and 3 from Melli, but in the other half of the field they concede too many second chances to the Americans who capture 6 offensive rebounds in the first quarter. Despite this, in the very first stages of the game, Italy seems to hold up well, but as the clock goes by, the United States gain pace and confidence with several baskets from beyond the arc and reach +10 at the end of the first period.
In the second quarter the blue attack totally jams, there are many, too many shooting errors (11% from three points), while on the other side coach Kerr’s men continue to press on the accelerator and dominate in every segment of the field. The Stars and Stripes national team digs a huge groove in the score and takes it too easily to +22 at the interval, effectively closing the case.
Upon returning from the changing rooms, the symphony does not change: Fontecchio is the only one who tries to do something for Italy, but the blue defense continues to leak from all sides and the Americans, on the wings of an extraordinary Bridges, punish it constantly. The bleeding doesn’t stop and the USA arrive at the last ten minutes of the game on +39, making the last part of the match a real formality.
Pozzecco: “Sorry but proud of what we did”
“We are sorry and bitter, but proud of the path we have come. We made it into the top eight teams in the world when no one hoped or believed it, but these guys have been wonderful up to this point in the tournament.” Thus expressed the coach of the Italian national basketball team, Gianmarco Pozzecco, at the end of the match lost against the USA in the quarter-finals of the 2023 World Cup.
“The thing I regret the most is that we finished first in the group and then we were forced to face the strongest team in the quarterfinals – continues -. I’ve always said that you need luck even in these circumstances. However they played a great game, they came from a defeat against Lithuania and they played fierce, shooting with sensational percentages. Group of the future? These are the boys of the future but also of the present, we just have to be proud of them”, concludes the blue coach.
Datome: It hurts”
There is great displeasure in the Azzurri after the defeat at the Italbasket World Cup against the USA (100-63) who gained access to the semifinals. “The USA have an athleticism and a physicality that we dream of, then if they shoot and score like that you really can’t play it – admits captain Gigi Datome, who, now close to retiring, has reached 201 appearances with the tank top tricolor -. It hurts because elimination costs anyway and I’m sorry that from first in the group we got to face them. However my opinion on this group doesn’t change, it’s like a family and I’m really happy to have been part of it”.
Melli: “We needed something extraordinary”
Equally honest was Nicolò Melli’s analysis: “They played as a US player and played a great game, while ours wasn’t one of the most brilliant performances. To compete with them, not even to win, an extraordinary match would have been needed. We are still proud and proud to be part of the top eight national teams in the world, but it’s normal that once you get this far you start dreaming more and more and there’s more and more desire to win. Now we have two more matches to honor the tournament and for the best possible placement”.
2023-09-05 16:27:30
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