ATHENS — BYU's Brock Zylstra scored a team-high 26 points, but the Cougar basketball team fell to the Italian National Team, 102-63, Wednesday in the Acropolis of Athens Tournament at the Olympic Center.
The Italians, led by three NBA players, including Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors, led 43-36 at halftime, then exploded in the second half to outscore BYU, 59-27.
Freshman DeMarcus Harrison chipped in 12 points while Charles Abouo added eight. Noah Hartsock recorded six points and 10 rebounds.
The loss to Italy, which is ranked No. 7 in the FIBA world rankings, concludes BYU's trip to Greece. The Cougars previously defeated the Athens All-Stars, 88-56, then crushed ASE Doukas of the Greece B League, 114-45, before playing in the Acropolis of Athens Tournament.
Greece, ranked No. 4 in the FIBA rankings, dominated BYU, 83-54, Tuesday.
email: jeffc@desnews.com
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Jeff Call has been a sportswriter for the Deseret News since 1997. He is the BYU beat writer and has been covering Cougar sports since 1993, when he served as sports editor at the Daily Universe. Call has written several more ..
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Nikon Guy & Nightowlamerica,
I can't wait to see how BYU does in the WCC. We played with these very good national teams in the first half without 3 possible starters and Hartsock was sick. BTW, we beat Gonzaga pretty bad last year in More..
Nikon Guy | 10:29 p.m. Aug. 24, 2011
Henderson, NV
"Granted there are three stars on the Italian team but an American college basketball team should be able to beat or at least hang with a foreign basketball team."
More..
@Night Owl: Wait until Gonzaga and St. Mary's play at the Marriot.... LARGE LOUD arena