Lottomatica Roma gave local fans one victory to cheer when it knocked off Group B winner Benetton Basket Treviso by 53-66 at the Citta di Roma tournament on Monday night in the Italian capital. Earlier on Monday, Benetton had secured first place in the group and a spot in Tuesday's title game, where it'll face Group A winner Zalgiris Kaunas. The winner of the final will get the first of four qualifying tournament tickets to the Nike International Junior Tournament in Paris, France that is part of the 2010 Euroleague Final Four in May. Lottomatica finished Group B with a 1-2 record after dropping the first two games to FMP and CSKA Moscow. The team from Rome finished Group B in last place and on Tuesday morning faces Benetton Fribourg in a seventh-place classification game. With its ticket to the final secured already, Benetton rested its prime scorer, Alessandro Gentile, but nonetheless stayed strong in the game for more than three quarters. Benetton's scoring drought of 6 minutes in the closing period gave Lottomatica the chance to extent the gap and get the win. Riccardo Ciavarroni was the top scorer for Lottomatica with 12 points in less than 19 minutes. He was followed by Riccardo Ferrarese, who had 11 points and 6 rebounds. Bulgarian guard Pavlin Ivanov led Benetton with 18 points and seven rebounds.

Lottomatica wasted no time and grabbed a 9-1 lead 3 minutes after the opening tipoff. Ivanov got his game going and scored 8 of the last 11 Benetton points of the first quarter to tie the game at 15-15. The teams were glued to each other until the half-time break, as the lead switched sides and 6 tied scores were registered in the second quarter. After scoring 9 points in the first half, Ciavarroni found himself struggling, but his three-pointer right before the third-quarter buzzer gave his team a 49-44 lead as Lottomatica started to pull away. Benetton combined turnovers and missed shots in a six-minute drought after which the gap was already 55-46. Five quick points gave left some hope on the Benetton bench, but Ferrarese and Alessandro di Pasquale sang the final tune to bestow on Lottomatica its first win in the tournament.