U18 Stellazzurra Basketball Academy Rome picked up its second straight victory at the Euroleague Basketball ADIDIAS NEXT GENERATION TOURNAMENT Qualifying Tournament – Torneo Citta di Roma by beating U18 Virtus Bologna 67-62 on Sunday night. Stellazzurra improved to 2-0 in Group A and returned to the ANGT Rome final, which the club won last season to advance to the ANGT Finals. In a battle of Italian clubs, Emanuele Trapani led Stellazzurra with 21 points while Sandro Mamukelashvili scored 15 points and Lazar Nikolic collected 12 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Njegos Sikiras did not play in the game for the host club as he’s dealing with an injury. Stellazzurra’s final Group A game will be on Day 2 against winless Anadolu Efes Istanbul. Virtus Bologna dropped to 1-1 after having previously beaten Anadolu Efes. Alessandro Pajola collected 18 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in the loss while Lorenzo Penna scored 10 points.

Mamukelashvili opened the game with the first basket and Scott Ulaneo made it 3-0 with a free throw. Pajola scored Virtus’s first points with two free throws. Mamukelashvili followed with another basket and two three-pointers in a 10-0 Stellazzurra run to open a 13-2 lead. Pajola stopped the run but Mamukelashvili nailed another three-ball – for 13 points in building a 16-4 lead. Virtus was able to string together baskets as the score was 18-8 before a Nikolic three-ball made it 21-8. Pajola, Nicolo Dellosto and Michele Rubbini scored baskets for Virtus, which cut the gap to 23-14 after 10 minutes. Virtus opened the second quarter with the first five points – two from Pajola and three by Danilo Petrovic – to get the deficit to 23-19. Gugliermo Caruso finally got Stellazzurra on the board in the quarter but three free throws from Petrovic and Jacopo Gianninoni had Virtus to within 25-22. Neither team scored for about three minutes until Jordan Philippe Bayehe’s put-back and Donato Vitale’s transition basket for Stellazzurra to extend the lead to 29-22. Penna got one point back on a free throw before a Stellazzurra technical foul resulted in three Pajola free throws and then Gianninoni’s three-pointer knotted the game at 29-29, which was the score at intermission.

Pajola’s basket to open the second half finally but Virtus back ahead and was matched by Nikolic. Two Penna scores pushed the lead to 33-37 before Donato Vitale and Trapani scored to square things at 37-37. Two more Trapani free throws gave Stellazzurra the lead 39-38 but Petrovic took the lead right back and Mirko Carella made it 39-42 before an Isacco Lovisotto foul shot left Virtus up by four points. Two Trapani baskets to even that game were followed by scores from Carella and Pajola as Virtus was up 45-49 after 30 minutes. Trapani hit four free throws and another basket as Stellazzurra opened the fourth quarter with an 8-0 run for a 53-49 lead. Carella’s free throw finally gave Virtus a point in the final frame and Babacar Seye scored to make it 55-50. Carella trimmed the deficit to three points but Ulaneo twice split two free throws to start a 7-0 run that left Stellazzurra ahead 62-52 with three minutes left. Petrovic stopped the surge and Penna and Pajola followed with three-pointers as the lead dwindled to 64-60 with just more than a minute to play. Trapani made just one of four free throws and then Penna put back an offensive rebound to get the deficit to 65-62. Trapani made up for his earlier misses with two final free throws to ice the game for good.