Late run carries sluggish Spain past Italy and into Quarter-Finals

WUHAN (China) - Spain overcame a sluggish performance and stepped up when it counted most with a late run carrying the 2006 champions past Italy 67-60 and securing them spot in the Quarter-Finals of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 - allowing Serbia to advance to the final eight as well from Group J.

TCL Player of the Game Juancho Hernangomez tallied 16 points while Ricky Rubio scored 15 points and Sergio Llull added 11 points. Spain survived Marc Gasol being a complete non-factor on offense with just 2 points on 1-of-6 shooting, 4 rebounds and 1 block in 27 minutes. The Spanish victory improves their mark to 4-0 and locks up a top-two spot in Group J along with Serbia. Italy fell to 2-2 despite 15 points from Danilo Gallinari and 12 from Luigi Datome. 

Turning Point: Danilo Gallinari had just nailed a three-pointer to give Italy a 56-52 lead with four minutes left - and Spain having only scored 2 points in the final frame. But Rubio hit two free throws to start a 15-4 run, in which he collected 9 points and Gasol hit a fadeaway jumper for his only points of the game. 

TCL Player of the Game: Juancho Hernangomez carried the Spaniards for most of the game as he finished with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go with 4 rebounds. He was one of the few players who was able to produce over major stretches for Sergio Scariolo's side.

Stats Don't Lie: Spain may have only shot 39 percent from the field, including 26 percent from long range, but they held Italy to just 35 percent, including 20 percent on three-pointers as the Italians came into the game as the top shooting team in the tournament. They also won the rebound battle 43-36 while picking up 32 points in the paint to 22 for Italy, who scored just 45 points in the final 35 minutes of the game. 

Bottom Line: Group J's two teams in the Quarter-Finals are set - Spain and Serbia - and Spain now have a day's rest to get prepared for their encounter with the 2014 finalists. Italy, for their part, want to finish the Second Round with a victory over Puerto Rico to lock up third place in the group. 

They said: "It was a tough game, a close game. We beat a great team with many great players. I think we need to give credit to what our players did defensively. We kept the best three-point shooting team in the competition to 20 percent on threes. It's true that we again had a pretty sloppy start and guys coming off the bench did a great job to give the fire we needed to start to move. And then the guys who started when they came back did their job. Victor (Claver) did a great job on (Danilo) Gallinari. Sergio (Llull) and Rudy (Fernandez), who were both doubtful until this morning, did a great job on (Marco) Belinelli. And overall the team did a fantastic defensive job. We were down four with 4 minutes to go and we had the 15-4 run right at the end, which says a lot about our togetherness, our toughness, our commitment. It was not the best offensive game that one may see but I give a lot of value to what my players did defensively." - Spain head coach Sergio Scariolo

"The key to the game was that after the first five minutes our defensive players who came from the bench brought a big intensity to the game and they scored 45 points in 35 minutes. That was the key. After that, we got the chance to win the game in the last minute." - Spain forward Victor Claver

"We suffered through the last five minutes of the first quarter. They put pressure on us and it was too difficult for us on offense. They stopped our offense. In the end we had back situations in reading for our offense. In the end, maybe we were a little bit tired with our guys playing more than 30 minutes. You have to be there in the final minutes against a great team." - Italy coach Meo Sacchetti

"We were not the best team, but even not playing our best basketball we still had a good chance to win the game. That’s why I am sorry about it. I take a big responsibility on this because the offense was very poor at the end. But I must say that we did not lose because of this." - Italy forward Luigi Datome

FIBA