U18 Stellazzurra Rome secured its ticket to the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Finals after defeating U18 Maccabi Tel Aviv 62-74 in the ANGT Patras first-place game on Sunday.

Stellazzurra’s defense conceded just 3 points in the third quarter to lay the foundation for the victory. It was the first time that Stellazzurra has taken first place in an ANGT qualifying tournament since 2014-15 in Rome; it lost its last four attempts at similar stages in addition to the 2018 ANGT Championship Game. Matteo Visintin led the way for the winners with 25 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals for a performance index rating of 27 and the MVP trophy. Lucas Fresno scored 19 points with 5 rebounds and 5 assists, Fabrizio Pugliatti added 11 points and 11 rebounds and Moussa Doumbia contributed 10 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks. Ofri Naveh paced Maccabi with 17 points and Tomer Agmon had 16 points.

Niv Avidan scored the first points of the game and Visitin answered for Stellazzurra at the other end. Doumbia’s three-point play gave the Italian team its first lead 4-5. After Naveh knocked down a triple to put Maccabi up 9-7, Stellazzurra held the Israeli team scoreless for more than 3 minutes and Emmanuel Innocenti scored 4 points in a 0-10 run to pull ahead 9-17. Agmon hit from deep to stop the drought and Ido Menchel also made a three-pointer to edge within 15-19. Lucas Fresno punched back with a triple for Stellazzura and the score was 15-22 after 10 minutes. Pugliatti and Shachar Doron swapped three-pointers to open the second quarter before Visintin poured in 7 points in helping Stellazzurra build an 18-34 cushion. Maccabi trimmed it to 12 points, but Visintin got 4 more points and the advantage was 22-40. It was still 33-50 inside the closing minute of the first half when Agmon and Doron went back-to-back from downtown and Maccabi trailed 39-50 at the break.

Stellazzurra scored the first 6 points of the third quarter to open a 17-point lead. Agmon scored at the other end, but that was the last basket Maccabi would get in the quarter as Stellazzurra gave up just 1 free throw the rest of the quarter and led 42-64 after 30 minutes. The margin was 42-65 when Maccabi finally scored after almost 4 minutes. The Israeli powerhouse tried to get back into the game as Doron, Naveh and Ido Iluz all hit three-pointers to trim the deficit to 62-73. But the hole was just too big to climb out of and Stellazzurra got the win.