Another loss for Italbasket; Nikola Jokic’s Serbia celebrates in Pesaro

Italy falters once again in the closing minutes and suffers its second consecutive loss in the latest round of 2027 World Cup qualifiers. In Pesaro, Serbia prevailed 76-64 at the end of a game that the Azzurri had brought back to life in the third quarter, before ultimately succumbing in the final ten minutes. The path to the World Cup, however, remains wide open. The next two games scheduled for November—first at home against Turkey and then on the road against Serbia—will likely be decisive.

Italy’s leading scorer was Nico Mannion, who tallied 23 points. Simone Fontecchio also reached double digits, finishing with 15 points after a strong start, though his offensive output gradually faded. On the other side, Aleksa Avramovic and Marko Guduric led Serbia with 20 and 19 points, respectively.

Serbia was also able to count on Nikola Jokic without him having to go overboard. The Serbian star, who spent a long time on the bench, finished the game with 8 points and 8 rebounds in 23 minutes. For Italy, once again, the main issue was their struggle on the boards: they allowed their opponents a whopping 18 offensive rebounds, a problem that had already surfaced in their previous match against Bosnia.

In the closing minutes, it was once again Avramovic who sealed the Serbian victory, scoring five points that put the game out of reach. The final score was 76-64 for Serbia, with Italy paying dearly for a fourth quarter in which they scored just 10 points and a difficult night under the boards.