Milan men lift Italy into World Cup quarterfinals

Facing a must-win situation, Italy was able to rely on a trio of EA7 Emporio Armani Milan veterans to overpower Puerto Rico 73-57 and advance to the FIBA Basketball World Cup quarterfinals on Sunday. With the win Italy improved to 4-1 in Group I and secured a spot in one of Tuesday's final eight games against a yet-to-determined opponent.

Stefano Tonut and Giampaolo Ricci scored 15 points apiece to pace the winners. Nicolo Melli added 7 points and collected 8 of his 12 rebounds on the offensive end, which led to a 22-3 advantage in second-chance points. Overall the Azzuri outrebounded Puerto Rico 48-29.

Tonut scored 13 first-half points to help Italy to a 39-36 lead at the break. Puerto Rico rallied to take a slim lead midway through the third quarter and went into the fourth down 4. Luigi Datome, who also played for Milan last season and has announced that he will retire from basketball after this tournament, opened the final stanza with a triple. Then Ricci then went off for 10 fourth-quarter points to help put the game away.

The result is good news for Milan, which has already started training for the 2023-24 campaign. Six players from Coach Ettore Messina's side are active at the World Cup and playing key roles for their respective countries. The strong efforts by Melli, whose performance index rating of 15 was the most of any player in the game, Tonut and Ricci ensure that they will hit the ground running when they rejoin their club mates. What's more, Germany’s Maodo Lo and Johannes Voigtmann are potential opponents for Italy in the quarterfinals.