Italy played its best game and torched a Gilas Pilipinas squad that was fighting for survival, 90-83, in the FIBA Basketball World Cup late Tuesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
After a sour shooting performance in their first two matches, the Italians dropped a barrage of long bombs to eliminate the Filipinos in the Group A preliminaries of the 32-nation tournament.
Italy will advance to the second round together with the Dominican Republic, which capped its undefeated run with a masterful 75-67 win over Angola early in the day.
The Italians and the Dominicans will join the qualifiers from Group B composed of Serbia, Puerto Rico, South Sudan and China in the second round of the group stages.
Gilas had been relegated to the classification phase, together with Angola. They, however, still have a chance to earn an automatic slot in the Paris Olympics pending the outcome of the final match between China and Puerto Rico on Wednesday.
Against Italy, Gilas groped for form.
The Italians, who struggled with a total of 12 three-pointers in their first two matches against Angola and the Dominican Republic, caught fire, dropping 17 treys using their crisp passing, clean looks at the basket, and lightning-quick ball movement.
“We just came here to win the game and that’s the most important thing,” Italy’s guard Marco Spissu said. “We won today and we’re very happy because in two days we will be facing Serbia. We want to keep dreaming, so let’s get it.”
Simone Fontecchio led the scoring parade as he hit 18 points and six rebounds, while Giampaolo Ricci dropped 14 points in a sizzling 4-of-6 clip from the three-point arc.
Spissu and Stefano Tonut added 13 points apiece, while Alessandro Pajola chipped in 11 markers for the Italians, who beat their Asian foes using their impressive European brand of play.
“You can’t expect the world No. 10 team to have three consecutive bad games, so their shooting was bound to happen,” said Gilas guard Kiefer Ravena, who had difficulty containing the taller, more experienced gunners of the Italian squad.