{"id":344991,"date":"2023-08-25T14:20:55","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T12:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=344991"},"modified":"2023-08-25T14:23:31","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T12:23:31","slug":"italy-survives-battle-with-angola-in-opening-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/italy-survives-battle-with-angola-in-opening-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy survives battle with Angola in opening game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Italy faced a stiff challenge to open the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 but prevailed in beating Angola 81-67<\/a> in the Group A curtain raiser.<\/p>\n

Italy improved to 3-0 all-time against Angola in World Cup history, winning in 9-16 Classification action in 1990 and walloping the Africans 92-61 in the 2019 World Cup First Round. But Angola showed they have taken a step forward in their generation change – though not enough to knock off the Italians in front of 21,214 fans at Philippine Arena.<\/p>\n

The turning point<\/b> : After a back-and-forth and tight first three quarters, Italy finally grabbed control of the game with some tough defense to start the final frame and open an eight-point lead 65-57. Angola could not get back to closer than five points the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

TCL player of the Game<\/b>: Simone Fontecchio was strong all game as Italy struggled to score the ball from long range, picking up 19 points on 8-of-14 shots to go with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.<\/p>\n

Stats don’t lie<\/b>: Italy shot just 6-of-31 (16 percent) from long range but made 69 percent of their two-point attempts. Gianmarco Pozzecco’s team also held Angola to 4-of-29 (14 percent) from long range.<\/p>\n

Bottom Line<\/b>: Italy will look to make it two in a row and take a major step towards the Second Round with their second game against Dominican Republic on Sunday, August 27. Angola have a second chance for a first victory in a near must-win showdown with hosts Philippines on the same day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Azzurri prevailed 81-67 in the Philippine Arena taking off their first win of the World Cup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":158,"featured_media":344961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_spbk_hide_featured":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[383],"tags":[],"rumors":[],"typology":[],"posizionamento":[],"class_list":["post-344991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-cup"],"yoast_head":"\nItaly survives battle with Angola in opening game - Sportando<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Azzurri prevailed 81-67 in the Philippine Arena taking off their first 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