He may have already announced his retirement from the sport when the World Cup ends, but Luigi Datome has not finished making his mark on basketball. The 35-year-old former Turkish Airlines EuroLeague champion took a game-saving turn on Friday to lead Italy on a surprise comeback to a memorable victory over Serbia.
Serbia was in charge, 62-51, with 59 seconds left in the third quarter. Datome proceeded to detonate a dunk, his first points of the game, and singlehandedly was responsible for the game's next 10 points in a span of 90 seconds to make it 62-61. Italy went on to win 76-78 behind 30 points from Simone Fontecchio and 14 more from Marco Spissu of Umana Reyer Venice, but without Datome's spark, things had looked bleak.
Datome to the rescue
Datome had not scored during his four-minute introduction to the action bridging the first and second quarters. When he returned midway through the third quarter, Serbia held a 55-42 advantage on the way to a high lead of 60-44. But while Serbia went cold from downtown, Datome got hot. He followed his dunk with a pair of triples before the third quarter could end, making it 62-59, then came out and scored the first basket of the final quarter. Just before he sat down, his job complete, his former EA7 Emporio Armani Milan teammate Nicolo Melli fed Alessandro Pajola of Virtus Segafredo Bologna for a go-ahead basket at 64-63, completing the comeback