Italy’s upset bid falls short as the US escapes 55-52 in a tense World Cup game

BERLIN (AP) — Italy came close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in women's FIBA World Cup history.

The Italians, making their first appearance in the tournament since 1994, gave the U.S. all it could handle before falling 55-52 on Sunday. It was the fewest points the Americans had scored in a World Cup win since they beat Australia 42-38 in 1967.

Italy (1-1) almost handed the Americans their first loss in the tournament since 2006 and first preliminary round defeat since 1983. Instead they came up just a few plays short.

“I feel a little bitter of course but they were the better team and they made better plays at the end so they deserve to win,” Italy point guard Mariella Santucci said. “I feel like the way we play we learn so much about ourselves that we can compete against everybody. To play like that with the USA is special, but it makes us think that we are a special team and we can do something special.”

Italy led 50-48 in the fourth quarter and the crowd of 9,232 that was made up of predominantly fans of the European nation was whipped into a frenzy. Then the U.S. went on a 7-0 run to take a 55-50 advantage.

The Italians got within three and star forward Cecilia Zandalasini had a chance to tie it at the buzzer, but her 3-pointer was off. She apologized after the game for being emotional toward an official for not calling a foul on the final possession.

“I would like to apologize for how I reacted in the end,” Zandalasini said. “It was a lot of emotions today, but I should have kept them inside of me a little better."

The Italians don't have much time to analyze what went wrong in the final few minutes against the U.S. with a key game against China on Monday.

“We have another very important game tomorrow. So now we've shown what we’re capable of,” Zandalasini said. “But we want to keep going and not just stop here and just lose our head on this game. It’s still a very, very long tournament.”

Zandalasini scored 14 points to lead Italy, which was one of the rare teams to actually have a .500 or better record against the U.S., going 1-1 before Sunday.

“I think we showed that tonight we deserved a spot in this tournament on this big stage,” Zandalasini said. “I’m so proud of my team. and I think, we have a great coach that believes in us and we really play our hearts out.”

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