Italy and Georgia in Tbilisi Cup Finals

Italy and Georgia are set to lock horns in the Finals of the Tbilisi Cup this weekend. This is yet another friendly tournament aimed at getting various European national teams ready for the upcoming Eurobasket 2015 this September. Italy came up with a convincing 85-61 win over Estonia and Georgia edged out Latvia in a thrilling 78-76 nail-biter.

Danilo Gallinari sparked a 19-0 rally for the Italians to begin the second quarter and they managed to retain control of the game from that point. Andrea Bargnani led the Italian squad with 15 points and six rebounds. Alessandro Gentile chipped in 12 points and four assists.

Estonia’s top performer was Siim-Sander Vene who tallied 15 points and eight boards.

The Georgian hosts were too much and too composed down the stretch for Latvia to steal away the game. Georgia were ahead for most of the game, but Latvia put together a convincing run in the final minutes to challenge them. It was a close one, but at the end of the day Georgia prevailed, 78-76. Zaza Pachulia did his work in the paint and finished the game with 16 points. His teammate Beka Burjanadze matched him with 16 points of his own.

“Latvia has a very strong team, they shot the ball particularly well from the perimeter,” said the young Burjanadze afterwards.

Both Georgia and Italy will now face each other over the weekend to decide the overall winner.

“Georgia will play with the support of its fans and it will be very useful for us to be in the situation where we play against the home team, while also we need to see how we respond to the challenge of a third game within three days.”