Italbasket, what regret: overtime smiles on France

France in semifinals, Azzurri out

Italian basketball’s Italy comes close to repeating the feat of 72 hours ago against Serbia, caressing the new breakthrough but not materializing it: in fact, France wins 93-85 after an extra time and flies to the semifinals at the expense of the Azzurri, out of Eurobasket 2022.

As against Jokic and his teammates, the match against the transalpines seemed to get difficult in the early stages: the offense was not clicking and the defense seemed not to find effective solutions against Fournier, Gobert and Heurtel. At halftime it’s 38-32, but in the second half it’s a different story: it’s especially Marco Spissu and Simone Fontecchio who emerge (21 points apiece for them at the final buzzer) and with seconds to go, with the score 77-75 and two free throws available to the new Utah Jazz player, the feat seems to be accomplished.

The Pescara player, however, misses both times from the lunette, the French score in the next action and the 77-77 is worth the overtime: the Azzurri, having lost the inertia, fail to recover it and Vincent Collet’s team has an easy game, scoring as many as 16 points in the five extra minutes.

Only regrets then for Gianmarco Pozzecco’s men, who thus close their adventure in the continental review.