Italy led for the last 38 minutes of the game over the Czech Republic to cruise to a win in their last preparation game behind Fontecchio and Mannion's performance.

Credit: FIBA
Credit FIBA

Italy cruised over the Czech Republic to a victory behind Simone Fontecchio and Nico Mannion's performance with the final score of 96-80 (25-18, 24-18, 26-23, 21-21) in a friendly game in Hamburg.

Italy took their first lead after the first minute of the game and never trailed for the rest of the game.

The Czechs played without their leader Tomas Satoransky, who suffered an injury on Friday's game against Germany.

At halftime, Italy already had a 13-point lead (49-36), and in the second half never allowed the Czech Republic to think about a victory.

In the third quarter, Italy was already leading by 20 (72-52) at after Mannion's floater with 2:19 left in the quarter. The remaining 12 minutes in the game were just a formality after that.

With 4:29 left in the second quarter, Achille Polonara converted on a dunk to give Italy their first double-digit lead (38-28) of the game.

Mannion closed the first quarter with a buzzer-beating layup to give the Italians a 7-point advantage (25-18).

Simone Fontecchio ended up with 18 points (6/7 2PT, 1/6 3PT, 3/3 FT), 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 1 steal.

The Czech Republic was led by Jan Vesely, who finished the game with 17 points (8/10 2PT, 1/1 FT), 11 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Italy: Nico Mannion 20 (5 AST), Simone Fontecchio 18 (5 AST), Stefano Tonut 14, Giampaolo Ricci 12 (7 REB), Achille Polonara 9;

The Czech Republic: Jan Vesely 17 (11 REB, 5 AST), Martin Peterka 14, Patrik Auda (5 REB), Ondrej Balvin 11, David Jelinek 10.

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