The Utah Jazz’s Simone Fontecchio’s run for the FIBA World Cup is over.
The Utah Jazz’s FIBA Five is now down to two, as Walker Kessler and Team USA sent Simone Fontecchio and Team Italy home in a lop-sided beatdown on Tuesday. The Americans won 100-63, behind Mikal Bridges and Tyrese Haliburton’s efforts. Bridges and Haliburton combined for 42 points on the night, while Austin Reeves added another 12.
The Americans never really looked in trouble, and it was so lopsided, that even the Jazz’s defensive big man, Kessler, got minutes. He played 10 minutes against Team Italy, dropping four points on the way, while pulling down an additional five rebounds.
For Fontecchio, however, it was clear that his team just didn’t have enough in the tank. He was just one of two players on the team to score double-digits, with Fontecciho scoring a team-high 18 points on solid efficiency from the floor, and Stefano Tonut dropping in another 11, on less-than-impressive shooting.
Former NBA player Nicolo Melli, who had been a big asset for the team so far, scored just five points for Team Italy. As with the other two men now out of the World Cup running, Jordan Clarkson and Lauri Markkanen, Fontecchio had to carry the load for Team Italy nearly by himself and couldn’t pull it off.
Unlike Markkanen and Clarkson, however, Fontecchio is not done playing.
Team Italy now moves from the tournament to the classification round. The teams that didn’t make it out of the first round of the FIBA Tournament ended up in another four-team Group Play, but this time, the teams were playing for higher rankings.
Those teams are now going to be seeded 32-17 at the end of the tournament. Italy now moves to the one-off round of classification games to determine the remaining teams.
Italy is scheduled to face the loser of Germany and Latvia, who are playing on Sept. 6.