Serbian basketball players beat Italy tonight with 90:86 (24:23, 20:30, 21:19, 25:14), in a friendly match at the DBB Supercup in Hamburg.
Nikola Jokić led Serbia to victory with a double-double performance, recording 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. He was followed by Vladimir Lučić, Vasilije Micić and Nikola Milutinov with 15 points each.
For Italy, Simone Fontecchio stood out with 25, Niccolo Melli with 17 and Nico Manion with 16 points.
The first part saw an equal match, but in the second quarter, Serbia played poorly in the defensive phase, and allowed Italy to go to the break with a nine-point lead, 44:53.
Simone Fontecchio with 14 and Niccolo Meli with 12 led Italy to the lead at halftime, while Nikola Milutinov stood out for Serbia with 13 points.
In the third quarter, the "Azuri" went up to a maximum advantage of 15 points (70:55), so that the "eagles" reduced the deficit to seven points by the end of that section and created a good foundation for what followed - a complete turnaround.
The team of Svetislav-Karij Pešić played better in the last quarter, especially in the defensive phase, and managed to reverse the result and record a victory in the penalty shootout.
Serbia will play the second match of the tournament against the better team from the host Germany and the Czech Republic.
Bonus video:
