LATVIA brushed aside the disappoinments of its heartbreaking quarterfinal setback to Germany to roll back Italy, 87-82, in their classification match in the FIBA World Cup 2023 at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Andrejs Grazulis scored a game-high 28 points on 12-of-13 shooting and grabbed six rebounds in 33 minutes of action to leading Latvia to victory over the Simone Fontecchio-less Italy.

Aigars Skele contributed 12 points and nine assists, while Arturs Zagars added 10 points and six assists for the Luca Banchi-mentored for the Latvians, who assured themselves of fifth or sixth place in the 32-nation competition.

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Davis Bertans contributed nine points and five rebounds for Latvia, which bowod out of the semis race following a 79-81 setback to Germany last Wednesday.

Luigi Datome carried the fight for Italy with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting in 22 minutes of action.

Nicolo Melli and Stefano Tonut each added 11 points each and Marco Spissu contributed 10 points for Italy.

The battle between two European heavyweights knocked out of contention by more superior opponents turned out to be as exciting as their previous matches.

Italy jumped to an early 13-point lead but Latvia countered with a scoring run of its own to take control with a 14-point advantage in the third quarter.

Latvia led, 67-60, heading into the fourth quarter, although Italy managed to hang around and keep the game interesting.

Up 84-82 late in the fourth period, Latvia got a huge boost when Grazulis nailed a big three-pointer and Tonut failed to counter with his own long shot with 24 seconds remaining.

Latvia will face the winner of the Slovenia-Lithuania game at the same venue to determine the fifth and sixth placerd in the tournament.

Italy, on the other hand, will battle the loser of the game to dispute the seventh and eighth spots.

The classification games are set on Saturday, one day before the championship game.

The scores:

Latvia (87) – Grazulis 28, Skele 12, Zagars 10, Bertans 9, A. Kurucs 9, Strautins 7, Smits 6, R. Kurucs 4, Zoriks 2
Italy (82) – Datome 20, Melli 11, Tonut 11, Spissu 10, Procida 8, Ricci 8, Pajola 5, Polonara 4, Spagnolo 4, Diouf 1, Severini 0
Quarterscores: 18-26, 46-42, 67-60, 87-82