U18 Umana Reyer Venice finished in seventh place at the Euroleague Basketball ADIDAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Torneo Citta di Roma by easing past U18 Anadolu Efes Istanbul 55-75. Martino Criconia nailed 8 three-pointers in scoring 26 points for Venice while Riccardo Visconti added 14 points. Michele Antelli chipped in 10 points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists and 5 steals as Venice won its first game of the ANGT Rome. Venice took control of the game with a 7-26 run in the second quarter. Efes did not win a single game, dropping its fourth in a row despite 16 points from Ismet Avsar while Burak Nurkan had 14 points, 11 rebounds and 2 assists in the defeat.

Yigitican Saybir scored 4 points as Efes jumped ahead 6-0. Visconti got Venice on the scoring board with 2 free throws before Avsar’s three-pointer had Efes up 13-2. Antelli and Samet Gulet swapped three-balls and then Alessandro Simioni converted a three-point play to make it 16-8. Avsar added 4 more points to give him 11 for the quarter and Efes a 20-8 lead after 10 minutes. Another Saybir triple increased the margin to 23-10, but the Efes offense stalled. Criconia knocked down two three-balls for Venice in a 2-12 run to get the Italian team to within 25-22. Avsar temporarily stopped the poor shooting stretch with a triple, but Criconia added two more three-balls and Visconti also connected from downtown as Venice raced ahead 28-33. And a fifth long ball from Criconia had Venice up 30-36 at intermission.

Simioni increased the lead to 30-38 before three Efes free throws. But Criconia nailed another long ball and Efes could not come up with defensive stops despite twice getting the margin down to 7 points at 36-43. Venice went on an 1-9 spurt - capped by Criconia’s seventh three-pointer - to lead 37-52. Efes managed 3 points on a free throw and put-back, but Venice tallied the final 10 points of the quarter to lead 40-62 after 30 minutes. Nurkan opened the fourth quarter with a score but Mihajlo Jerkovic followed with a three-pointer for Venice and Visconti’s put-back pushed the advantage to 42-67. Hakan Emiroglu, Kerim Tacir and Nurkan all knocked down triples over the course of the fourth quarter, but Efes could not get closer than 20 points the rest of the way.