Great Italy Overwhelm Serbia

SERBIA 43 – ITALIA 64

Serbia and Italy played a very balanced first half of their game, since both teams know what was on stake. Both teams performed aggressive defense that made that was hard to move the score, although teams traded baskets.

The first quarter finished 12-17 for Italy, with Laura Macchi as the lead scorer with 6 pts and 4 rebounds, joined by Kathrin Ress with 6 pts.

Italy played mostly from the perimeter, with their bigs doing a hard job in the paint, and also on the defensive end.


The second quarter was same old story, but harder for the score. Italy needed 4:04 to score their first points but the three from Francesca Ciampoli sparked a 9-0 run that put the Azzurre in double digit leads for the first time, 16-26, with 3 minutes remaining.

Ivana Grubor cut the run with a fastbreak lay up with 1:51 remaining. In that stretch of time the run was 5-4 for Italy that this way went into the locker room 20-31 up, being Federica Ciampoli their leading scorer with 5 pts


After the break the song remained the same. The serbs offense wasn’t still working, thanks to the hard defense played by Gianni Lambruschi’s team, which left Serbia in 5 points in the first six minutes of the third.

The italian offense begint to work too and the could rack up points on their lead, with a biggest lead of 19 points after a jumper from Kathrin Ress with 3:56 remaining for the 25-44

Nervousness led Ines Kresovic to commit the second Serbia’s flagrant foul with one minuto remaininng. Italy had an 8-3 run in the last three minutes, going 33-47 into the fourth

Serbia struggled on the court trying mostly the drivings, while Italy had found her rithym in the offense and had no trouble to score

Jovica Antonic put all his aces on the court with 5:24 remaining, but it was in vain. The italians were up by 23 after a three from Giorgia Sotana, but the final score was 43-64.

No Serbian player reached double digit in scoring. For Italy Kathrin Ress scored 10, same as Laura Macchi, who also added 9 rebounds. Georgia Sotana had 11 and Francesca Modica 13. Raffaella Masciadri corralled 10 rebounds

MIQUEL BORDOY CANO

Photos and Article Credited: LOKOS X EL BALONCESTO FEMENINO

Post Game Interview by Leslie Anderson 

Kathrin Ress and Francesca Zara 

Head Coaches: Gianni Lambruschi and Jovica Antonic