Italy Clinch Valuable Road Win At Greece

Guard Giorgia Sottana turned in another splendid perfomance to help Italy clinch a valuable away victory in Greece

Italy won for the second time in a row in Group B of the EuroBasket Women Qualification Round with a 64-53 victory at Greece on Saturday.

The Azzurre, who endured an opening day setback at Latvia, seem to have hit their stride.

They bounced back with a midweek triumph over Luxembourg and then turned in an impressive display on the road against the Greeks to improve to 2-1.

Point guard Giulia Gatti made a driving go-ahead lay-up with 7:43 to play in Maroussi for the Italians and Raffaella Masciadri then sank two free-throws to make it 48-45.

Twice the Greeks pulled to within one, after baskets by Dimitra Kalentzou and Olga Chatzinikolaou, but Italy held firm.

Guard Giorgia Sottana sank two free-throws and Lavinia Santucci followed with a three-point play for a 55-49 Italy lead.

Pelagia Papamichail gave Greece hope with a hook shot but Sottana next hit a three-pointer for Italy to push the advantage to 58-51.

Greece got no closer than five points the rest of the way.

Sottana's 16 points led the way for Italy, while Papamichail had 15 for Greece as they fell to 1-2.

Quotes Greece vs. Italy

Italy Head Coach Roberto Ricchini
"This was a good game for us. It was hard but we retained our focus on the encounter. During half-time I asked my players to have better contact and to be more effective in defense. The key was the defense we played in the second half and especially during the last quarter."

Greece Head Coach Alekos Daglas
"This was a negative result for us. We lost at home to a team that has the same goals with us. We played bad offensively. Italy is a tough team, but the way we played gave them the opportunity to attack and to get the positive result in the end. We keep going, we don't stop at a bad result. Everything is still open in our group."

Italy player Ilaria Zanoni
"It was a very crucial game for us. Greece has a very good team and the outcome of the encounter was very important for both teams. We played aggressively in the biggest part of the game and especially in the second half we played better. After Finland defeated Latvia, it's obvious that in this group any team can beat anyone. It will be a tough fight till the end for all of us."

Greece player Pelagia Papamihail
"It's a bad result for our team. For three quarters we were in the game, but at the end we weren't focused. We gave them the opportunity to reach easy baskets. We had to be more concentrated. Nothing is over yet, we'll keep fighting. We know that we are with our backs against the wall, but we are not disappointed. We know that we have to fight in the next games."