TRENTO (Italy) - Italy started their preparations for the FIBA EuroBasket 2025 in successful fashion with two wins at the Trentino Basket Cup to claim first place in the four-team event, which also featured fellow EuroBasket participants Iceland and Poland.
Head coach Gianmarco Pozzecco's team defeated Iceland 87-61 in before beating Senegal 80-56 in the Final of the two-day tournament.
In the Final against Senegal, Italy sat stars Simone Fontecchio, Nicolo Melli and Marco Spissu for precautionary reasons. Momo Diouf led the way with 17 points while Giampaolo Ricci and Gabriele Procida both had 12 points. Diouf ended up taking MVP honors.
"It's difficult to play two games in two days against two completely different teams," Pozzecco said. "Senegal had players of a certain size. Fatigue prevents you from starting focused, but the boys played excellent, and we improved a lot in the second half. It was another small step forward."
After the tournament, the Italians made their first two cuts with Giordano Bortolani and Guglielmo Caruso leaving the training camp.
Poland claimed third place in Trento as they defeated Iceland 92-90 with a big fourth quarter of 29-19. Andrzej Pluta scored 18 points and Aleksander Balcerowski had 16 points in the win. Iceland finished fourth despite Sigtryggur Bjornsson's 25 points.
The game had extra significance as Iceland and Poland are both in Group D and will face each other on August 31 in Katowice, Poland. Italy meanwhile will be playing in Group C in Cyprus.
On the first day of action, Italy took care of business with an 87-61 victory over Iceland, giving up only 6 points in the second quarter. Spissu and Fontecchio did play but Melli rested the whole weekend. Saliou Niang led the way with 17 points, Fontecchio contributed 14 points and Procida chipped in 12 points.
Martin Hermannsson tallied 12 points in the loss.
The other first day game had Poland losing to Senegal 75-69. Michal Sokolowski top scored for the EuroBasket hosts with 11 points.
Team | Record | Win % |
|---|---|---|
Italy | 2-0 | 100% |
Lithuania | 1-0 | 100% |
Poland | 1-1 | 50% |
Estonia | 0-1 | 0% |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 0-2 | 0% |
Iceland | 0-2 | 0% |
FIBA