Tryggvi Hlinason's stellar night: 34 points & 21 rebounds in Iceland's win over Italy / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

In Group H of the FIBA 2023 World Cup qualifiers Iceland (2-1) and Italy (1-2) created an instant classic, with a double-overtime thriller that in the end rewarded Iceland with a 107-105 win (21-18, 23-15, 21-26, 20-26, 9-9, 13-11).

Iceland built a six-point lead at the beginning of the second overtime, thanks mostly to Elvar Fridriksson (106-100).

With 7 seconds left in the game, Michele Vitali scored a layup to reduce Iceland's lead to two points (106-104) but Iceland sealed the win with a free throw to take the win.

During the first overtime, Iceland continued to control the painted area with Hlinason, who was simply unstoppable for most of the game.

The Icelandic big man gave his team a three-point lead with 22 seconds remaining (94-91) but, once again, Stefano Tonut tied the game with a three-pointer to send the game to the second overtime (94-94)

In the fourth quarter, Stefano Tonut tied the game at 85 with 30 seconds left on the clock. Iceland had the chance to win the game ut Gudmundsson failed to make the 3-pointer and the game went to overtime.

Iceland dominated the first half, with a solid defense and a well-balanced offense led by Hermannsson and Hlinason, they were able to limit Italy, who struggled a lot to find easy baskets and didn't have great percentages from deep. Hlinason was already flirting with a double-double at halftime with 13 points and 8 rebounds.

In the second half, the situation changed completely. Italy started to fight back and at the end of the third quarter reduced Iceland's lead to just 6 points (65-59)

For Iceland, Tryggvi Hlinason was the hero of the night. The big man finished with 34 points (14/16 2PT, 6/12 FT), 21 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 turnovers, and 50 EFF.

For Italy, on the other hand, the top scorer was Nico Mannion, who had 23 points (3/10 2PT, 4/9 3PT, 5/7 FT), 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 turnover, and 18 PIR

Iceland: Tryggvi Hlinason 34 (21 REB), Martin Hermansson 23 (7 AST), Elvar Fridriksson 25 (7 AST), Jon Axel Gudmundsson 11 (8 REB)

Italy: Nico Mannion 23 (7 AST), Michele Vitali 22 (9 REB), Stefano Tonut 18,

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