While Draymond Green and Steve Kerr are waiting for the start of the 2020 Olympic games with Team USA, another member of the Golden State Warriors was still vying for a spot in Tokyo.
After wins over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in Belgrade’s FIBA qualifying tournament, Nico Mannion and Team Italy met Serbia with a ticket to the Olympic games on the line.
Against Serbia’s Nemanja Bjelicia and Boban Marjanovic, Italy jumped out to a 12 point advantage heading into the locker room at halftime. Despite a late run by Serbia in the fourth quarter, Italy hung on for the Olympic-clinching victory, 102-95.
Mannion led the Italians with a team-high 24 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the floor with four assists in 28 minutes against Serbia.
Via @warriors on Twitter:
#Tokyo2020 bound.
Huge congrats to Nico Mannion, who led @Italbasket with 24 points in the finals of @FIBA qualifying tourney play today. pic.twitter.com/oaw5wYN3XX
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) July 4, 2021
Watch highlights from Italy’s contest against Serbia via YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LOfoFglRwg
Heading into the Olympics, the young Warriors point guard has scored 20 or more points in two of Italy’s three qualifying games.
Italy joins Slovenia, Germany and the Czech Republic as the final four teams to secure a spot in Tokyo’s Olympic basketball tournament.
Mannion will now meet Golden State assistant coach Mike Brown in the group stages of the Olympics. Brown is the head coach of Team Nigeria. Mannion and Italy will fill out Group C in the Olympics with Germany, Australia and Nigeria.
The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo is set to begin on July 23.
This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook!