Stellazzurra survives Efes comeback, reaches first-place game

U18 Stellazzurra Rome booked its spot in the first-place game of the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament by surviving a massive comeback from U18 Anadolu Efes Istanbul for a 61-69 victory to take the top spot in Group A. Matteo Visintin scored 17 points for Stellazzurra including two big free throws with 1 minute left to stop a 23-1 run by Efes. Emmanuel Innocenti and Nicola Giordano both added 10 points as Stellazzurra finished group play with a 3-0 record. The Italian team, which reached the 2018 ANGT Championship Game, will face the top finisher from Group B on Sunday with the winner of that game advancing to the ANGT Finals at the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Final Four. The ANGT Istanbul host side Efes just could not finish the comeback and dropped to 2-1 and will play for third place. Koralp Turk and Karahan Efeoglu both scored 12 points in the loss.

Fabrizio Pugliatti and Visintin both scored three points as Stellazzurra jumped ahead 3-8. Yunes Hamatoglu countered with four points at the other end to pull Efes within 9-12. But Efes went scoreless over the final 3:27 minutes of the first quarter and Stellazzurra used a 0-8 spurt for a 9-20 lead. The momentum went into the second quarter with a 1-9 run as the advantage grew to 10-29. Efes could not get an offense going with just eight points in the second quarter and Stellazzurra was up 17-37 at halftime.

Stellazzurra did not let up in the second half, starting with eight of the first 10 points for a 19-45 lead. Efes tried to cut into the deficit but could not get closer than 22 points and the score was 38-62 after 30 minutes. Stellazzurra slept-walked into the fourth quarter and Efeoglu scored five points in an 11-0 surge to trim the gap to 49-62. Pugliatti hit a free throw for Stellazzurra’s first points of the quarter after nearly 7 minutes. Kaan Tarla hit a triple, Turk followed with two more three-pointers and Tarla converted a three-point play as Efes was suddenly within 61-63 with 1 minute to play. Visintin hit two big free throws with 52 seconds left and Innocenti added two foul shots with 29 seconds remaining to stave off the comeback.