Simone Fontecchio set a new national team scoring record on Sunday, leading Italy to a win over Bosnia and Herzegovina in EuroBasket 2025 in Limassol, Cyprus.
Fontecchio produced a career-high 39 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the 96-79 victory at the Spyros Kyprianou Arena. He went 13-of-20 from the field, including 7-of-10 from 3-point range, in 37 minutes as Italy improved to 2-1 in Group C.
The Miami Heat forward notched the single-game scoring record by an Italian player at the FIBA EuroBasket Championship, topping the previous record of 36 points by Andrea Bargnani in 2011. He is one of eight players to score at least 30 points this year.
Italy outscored its opponent in each quarter and held a 52-39 advantage in the second half, leading for nearly 28 minutes in total. The group shot 58.3% from 3-point range (14-of-24), compared to 23.8% for Bosnia and Herzegovina (5-of-21).
Darius Thompson and Marco Spissu each added 14 points to help lead Italy, while Momo Diouf scored eight points and Nico Melli had six points. Saliou Niang, who led Italy in its win over Georgia on Saturday with 15 points, finished with three points and two rebounds in 12 minutes.
Jusuf Nurkić paced Bosnia and Herzegovina with 21 points and 10 rebounds, John Roberson scored 13 points and Amar Alibegović added 12 points. They have now dropped consecutive games after winning their opener on Thursday.
The preliminary round of the 42nd edition of EuroBasket is running across Cyprus, Finland, Latvia and Poland, with teams competing in four groups of six. The top four teams after five games will advance to the knockout round, which begins on Sept. 6.
After winning their second straight game, Italy will return to action on Tuesday against Spain (2-1), with the winner likely advancing out of the group phase. Bosnia and Herzegovina plays next on Tuesday against Greece (3-0), which has clinched a place in the knockout round.