ISTANBUL (Türkiye) - United States find themselves just 40 minutes from completing their quest for a seventh undefeated title at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup, and the last team standing in their way is an Italy side looking for a shock upset in the 2024 Final.
USA have amassed 50 straight wins in this competition dating back to the inaugural edition in 2010. The half-century came in a blowout of New Zealand, and the Americans have not been challenged with an average winning margin of 68.2 points - which would demolish the previous best mark of 53.7 points difference in 2018. So, Italy have their work cut out for them.
Italy's victory total in their two U17 World Cup appearances is nine as the Europeans are playing with house money just having reached the title bout. Italy finished ninth in 2014 and made history in Istanbul by reaching the Quarter-Finals and then even more history by getting to the Semi-Finals. By beating Türkiye in the Semi-Finals, Italy have now locked up their first-ever U17 World Cup medal. And that came after finishing second at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2023 - the country's first cadet continental Final since 1991.
Key matchup
Whenever USA are playing, the key for their opponent is taking care of the ball. Italy will face wave after wave after wave after wave of pressure - for an absolutely exhausting 40 minutes. Italy's Maikcol Perez will need to have perhaps the best game of his life as his size, strength and ball-handling skills will be a great help against the USA defensive pressure.
X-Factor
In a David versus Goliath matchup like this it is hard to find something that Italy can do to actually win this game. Belief might be the only thing that can get it done for Italy. Belief that for one game - just 40 minutes - they are USA's true equals on the court, and that the basketball gods are shining on the Italians.
Stats don't lie
Everybody knows about the explosive offense and defense from the USA - usually the latter leading to the former. USA leads the competition in scoring (128.5 ppg), field goal percentage (56.5 percent), two-point shooting (64.8 percent), assists (39.7), offensive rebounds (20.5), steals (24.0) and turnovers forced (33.5). But Italy are the best three-point shooting team in the competition at 34.3 percent, and the Europeans commit only 14.0 turnovers per game - third-fewest in the competition.
Past matchups
These two teams have never faced off in the U17 World Cup. The countries have played each other nine times in youth FIBA events and USA are 9-0 with the most recent game being in the group stage of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2017.
They said
We play the Final against a monster team - Coach Mangone
"We won the dream to play the Final against a monster team. You know the power of the United States, but for us it will be a special day. But we will fight. Against Türkiye we played our best game. And if we follow the same line and play a little bit better I hope we will play a better game. This is the only target for us." - Italy head coach Giuseppe Mangone
"This is the team that we have to go through to get to our goal. But they are a good team, they wouldn't be here if they weren't a good team." - USA head coach Sharman White
FIBA