Italy beat Puerto Rico in Basketball World Cup

WUHAN: Italy barely toppled Puerto Rico in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup second round match on Sunday but the European team couldn’t earn the quarterfinals ticket.

European basketball powerhouse Italy won against Puerto Rico 94-89 in the Group J game.

Puerto Rico led the first two quarters 46-26, having a comfortable lead before the third period.

But Italy managed to comeback in the fourth quarter. The regular time in Wuhan, China ended in 83-83 tie so the winner had to be decided in the overtime.

In the overtime, Italy scored 11 points to win the match, meanwhile Puerto Rico produced six points.

Marco Belinelli was the top performer for Italy, scoring 27 points and getting six rebounds.

Belinelli’s fellow teammate Danilo Gallinari tallied 22 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Puerto Rican forward Renaldo Balkman scored 14 points against Italy. He also grabbed seven rebounds.

Puerto Rico’s Angel Rodriguez and Gary Browne scored 13 points each.

Italy completed the Group J in the third place. Puerto Rico ended the group in the fourth place. Group J teams Serbia and Spain were through the last eight in China 2019.

Meanwhile, basketball’s governing body on Sunday removed from the World Cup blundering match officials who made an error in the dying seconds of Lithuania’s tournament-ending loss to France, but the result stands.

Lithuania’s furious coach Dainius Adomaitis lashed out at FIBA after Saturday’s 78-75 defeat to France, who moved into the quarter-finals at his team’s expense.

The crucial mistake occurred with the French leading just 76-75 at the time.

“FIBA has determined that during the last free-throw attempt by Lithuanian player number 17 (Jonas Valanciunas) with 30.8 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, French player number 27 (Rudy Gobert) touched the rim while the ball was in contact with it,” said a statement.

“The correct decision should have been to call a basket interference and one point awarded for Lithuania.

“The officials of this game will not officiate any more games of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019.”

The referees in charge were Antonio Conde from Spain, Daniel Garcia Nieves from Venezuela and Argentina’s Leandro Lezcano.

Their expulsion will do nothing to temper the anger of Adomaitis, who swore and slapped the table in the post-match press conference after Lithuania’s fate was sealed in Nanjing.

“Ask questions to FIBA, why are you asking me?” he snapped at journalists. “This is a joke, this is not basketball.”

Valanciunas was more measured but no less disappointed, saying: “What happened at the end was kind of tough. “It was not acceptable, the last couple of calls were terrible. There has to be something done.”