U18 Stellazzurra Rome rallied from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to open its Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Patras with a thrilling 82-78 victory over U18 Next Generation Team Patras. Stellazzurra allowed just 1 basket in the final 7 minutes to come back for the Group B win. Matteo Visintin paced Stellazzurra with 19 points, Emmanuel Innocenti collected 18 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, Fabrizio Pugliatti scored 15 points and Riccardo Salvioni added 11 points, including the last 4 of the game. Alexandros Samontourov was a force for NGP with 24 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and an index rating of 38 while Pacome Dadiet and Illan Pietrus both tallied 16 points and Mohamed Diawara had 14 points in the loss.
Stellazzurra rallies in fourth to beat NGP, 82-78
Diawara scored 4 points and NGP jumped ahead 2-8. Pietrus drained a three-pointer and the selection team was leading 4-13. Stellazzurra found a rhythm and scored seven straight points to get closer. The Italian side committed some turnovers and Samontourov took advantage of them with 9 points in a 0-10 surge to give NGP an 11-23 lead. Visintin had 4 points at the other end and Stellazzurra trailed 16-26 after 10 minutes. Visintin picked up 5 more points and Stellazzurra trimmed the deficit to 25-28. Dadiet’s score made it 25-32 before Stellazzurra started getting stops and put together a 13-4 surge to close the first half ahead 38-36.
Pugliatti scored twice early in the second half and Stellazzurra was able stay ahead 48-46. Samontourov converted a three-point play and Dadiet hit a three-pointer and NGP was up 48-54. Pietrus and Dadiet added two free throws each and the advantage was up to 49-58 before Dadiet scored the final 4points of the third quarter and the margin was 53-63. Stellazzurra kept NGP scoreless for the first 2 minutes of the fourth quarter but only got within 57-63. Pietrus’ free throws had NGP ahead 57-68 but Stellazzurra made its run with Innocenti scoring 6 points in a 12-2 run to close the gap to 69-70. And Visintin tied the game 75-75 with a layup with less than 3 minutes to play. After Diawara and Lucas Fresno swapped three-pointers, NGP failed to execute and Salvioni put Stellazzurra ahead 79-78 on a free throw with 48 seconds remaining. Pietrus committed an offensive foul and Salvioni converted a layup with 24 seconds for an 81-78 cushion. Innocenti missed both free throws with 10 seconds left but Salvioni grabbed the offensive rebound and iced the game on a free throw with 1.1 seconds left.