The Bosnia and Herzegovina national basketball team was defeated by Italy in Limassol with a score of 96:79, in the third round of Group C of the European Championship.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina basketball players played much better than in the match with the Spanish team, at times they had the advantage, but in the final moments they made several mistakes in attack and had to lend a hand to the Italians who came to their second victory in the championship.
The team of coach Adis Bećiragić opened the match well and took a 12:6 lead. However, the Italians came back thanks to Fontecchi’s three-pointers, who created a turnaround with eight consecutive points. By the end of the quarter, the Italians had the lead, but BiH held on to the score and went into the two-minute break with a point behind.
Roberson played well at the end of the first and at the beginning of the second quarter and tied the game with a three-pointer, but the BiH The national team allowed the Italians a few easy points again and regained the lead of five, and with a three-pointer by Fontecchia in the 15th minute, an eight-point lead.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina basketball team responded well after the timeout of Adis Bećiragić and with a 6:0 series, or with points from Alibegović, Gegić and Nurkić, they came back to only two points behind. After the points, Nurkić did an excellent job in defense by blocking and passing to Vrabac, who ran on a counterattack and scored the equalizing basket.
At the end of the half, the Bosnia and Herzegovina basketball team made several mistakes again and missed a couple of shots, so the Italians managed to go up by 4.
The third quarter began with a three-pointer by Roberson, and with a second, excluding technical foul by coach Fonseca, so the organizer of the game of the Bosnia and Herzegovina team used an additional free throw to equalize again. In the next attack, Alibegović hit a three-pointer for the lead of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 23rd minute.
But, new mistakes followed by the BiH basketball players, who allowed two offensive rebounds in the rack, which resulted in two three-pointers that gave the Italians the advantage again.
By the end of the quarter, the BiH team’s play had dropped again, and Italy came in with a plus 10.
The BiH national team got a new opportunity to get back into the game in the 29th minute when Spissu earned an unsportsmanlike foul for elbowing Gegić in the neck area. However, Gegić only hit one free throw, but in the next attack, Vrabac scored with the sound of the siren and reduced the deficit to five points.
The Italians nevertheless fought back through Thompson and Spissu, who made three-pointers to give them the largest lead of 11 points at the end of the third period.
At the beginning of the fourth period, Italy went to the largest lead of 15 points, and the player who kept BiH in the scoring position was Jusuf Nurkić. Thanks to him, BiH made a big run and in the 35th minute came within seven points of the deficit.
The BiH team’s run was interrupted by Thompson, who scored under a foul, and that seemed to be the key moment that turned the game around. A major decline in the BiH team’s play followed, with several unforced errors made in the attack, which the Italians took advantage of and secured victory with a new run of points.
The most efficient player in the BiH national team was Nurkić with a “double-double” performance of 21 points and 10 rebounds. Roberson scored 13, Alibegović 12 and Atić 10 points.
Fontecchio was by far the best player in the Italian national team with 39 points and eight rebounds. Thompson and Spissu scored 14 points each.
In the first two matches of the third round in this group, Greece defeated Georgia with 94:53 and secured further placement, while Spain defeated Cyprus with 91:47.
Greece is first with six points, Spain and Italy have five each, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia have four each, while Cyprus is last with three points.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s next match is against Greece on Tuesday, and the last in the group stage, which will likely decide the fourth-placed team in the group, is against Georgia on Thursday.
Photo: courtside 1891/video/screenshot
