GDANSK (FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 European Qualifiers) - Italy missed a chance to clinch a berth at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 as they lost 94-78 against Poland on the road in the European Qualifiers.

Maciej Lampe was Poland’s top scorer with 22 points to go with 8 rebounds  while Mateusz Ponitka collected 18 points and 6 rebounds, Michal Sokolowski chipped in 15 points, Adam Waczynski had 14 points and A.J. Slaughter added 10 points and 11 assists. The victory was Poland’s third straight in Group J and gives them a 6-4 record as they can still dream about their first FIBA World Cup appearance since 1967.

Italy got 13 points each from Awudu Abbas and Pietro Aradori while Alessandro Gentile and Christian Burns both 10 points, but they were not enough on the road as the Italians dropped to 7-3. Italy did manage to secure the tie-breaker advantage over Poland after winning by 19 points win in Bologna in September. Italy are trying to get back to the global spectacle for the first time since 2006.

Turning point: Italy were hanging around 56-47 early in the third quarter when Waczynski and Slaughter both nailed three-pointers in an 8-0 spurt to open a 17-point lead 64-47. Italy managed to make it a six-point game later in the period but Poland would not let them get closer than that the rest of the way.

Game hero: Ponitka was all over for Poland with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 5 steals. 

Stats don’t lie: Poland controlled the low post with 48 points in the paint to Italy’s 34 and were able to get out in the open court with 25 fast break points to 14 for Italy. Poland also turned the ball over just nine times while hitting 8/17 three-pointers for 47 percent compared to 8/27 for 30 percent for Italy.

Bottom line: Poland will finish their European Qualifiers campaign with a road game against Croatia before hosting Netherlands in the final game during the February 2019 window. Italy, for their part, host Hungary and then travel to Lithuania in the final window.

They said:“First thing I want to say is respect for our team, our players. I’m really proud of their effort and their teamwork. I think it was clear in both of these games in this window that our team played with tremendous heart. Great team effort and great persistence. I think our guys really fought, defended well and really played together offensively. The windows are not easy. A lot of times rosters change, situations change. So our guys really came together quickly and they were really focused. As coaches, we’re really proud of the players. All the credit goes to them. And for me, I couldn’t be happier with this window. It was a fantastic effort and we put ourselves in a very good position and we want to finish the job and accomplish something big for Polish basketball.” - Poland head coach Mike Taylor

“Obviously we are very happy after this win. We completed the window the way we wanted to, with two victories. And we are a step closer to our goal. I am extremely happy and proud of our team. Everybody put in a great effort from the first day. Everybody was locked in. Coach Mike did a great job of preparing us, not running us too hard before the game in (Netherlands). And it showed. I’m happy to be here and able to help out and accomplishing this big goal for our country.”- Poland’s Maciej Lampe

“We had a bad first quarter and it decided the game. We tried to come back and close the game and were at maybe six points but we did not have the focus to play the game. They made another break and stopped the comeback. The stats is a perfect situation to read the game. They shot better on two points and three points, the rebounds were the same. We had 14 turnovers and they had nine. That’s it. That’s the difference. Sometimes the game is so simple. Poland played better in both situations - on offense and defense - than Italy.” - Italy head coach Meo Sacchetti

“It was a tough game for us. We were down from the first quarter eight or nine points and we tried to stay close, but we didn’t reach our goal. We suffered a lot against their bodies under the rim, especially Lampe. We already knew his talent, but not only that but also his body and how tall he is. Plus they were in a very good mood to make open threes and tough shots, and we didn’t do a good job contesting these kinds of shots. I think that this window is positive for us. We had one and a half good games, and we are positive. We have one more game to win to reach our goal, which is obviously the World Cup next year in China. So, we finished this window in a positive way. If we want to take a positive situation from this game, we didn’t let them beat us by more than (19) points. That was the difference from the first game in Bologna.” - Italy’s Pietro Aradori

FIBA