Game Summary
Turning point: With Turkey down by two in the closing seconds, Ender Arslan drove to the basket and decided to pass off - when he had an open lay-up - to Engin Atsur, who went for the win instead of a tie with a three-point attempt from the corner, which he missed.
Hero: With Bostjan Nachbar plagued by foul trouble, Goran Jagodnik came off the bench and hit some timely baskets in the last two quarters to hold off Turkey's furious charge.
Stats: Slovenia made 13 of 31 three-point attempts while Turkey were just 5 of 20.
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Slovenia ended Turkey's unbeaten run at the EuroBasket with a thrilling 69-67 triumph on Wednesday night at the Arena Lodz to clinch first place in Group F.
The win has thrown the Slovenians into a Quarter-Final clash with Croatia while Turkey now must face Greece with both games to be played on Friday.
"It was an extremely tough game but to beat a team that had not lost in the tournament is a great result for us it's more important to go into the elimination round on the back of a win."
Jure Zdovc's team, whose only defeat in this competition was an overtime loss to Spain in Group C, led Turkey by as many as 19 points in the first half but ended up going to the break with a 39-32 advantage.
Turkey clawed their way back and took their only lead of the game at 48-47 on a fast-break lay-up by Semih Erden with 3:30 to go in the third quarter, only for Slovenia to go back on top at 57-52 with 10 minutes remaining.
Leading 60-58, Slovenia appeared to be in good shape after scoring eight of the game's next 12 points for a 68-62 advantage with 50 seconds remaining.
Following two Omer Asik free-throws for Turkey, though, Uros Slokar missed a jumper for Slovenia and Samo Udrih fouled Ender Arslan while the Turk was attempting a three-pointer with 10 seconds left.
Arslan made all three to cut the deficit to 68-67.
After Turkey quickly fouled Udrih and he made just one of two free-throws, Bogdan Tanjevic called a timeout to discuss the end-of-game strategy.
When play resumed, Arslan received the inbounds pass in his own half and then raced up the floor, penetrated and whipped the ball out to a wide-open Engin Atsur in the corner.
Atsur missed the potential game-winning three, though, as Slovenia survived.
"I'm generally very satisfied with the team," Tanjevic said.
"We had a shot to win the game. Sometimes it goes in, other times it doesn't. Now we will face Greece, a team that has a lot of experience in Championships. But then again, we could have faced Croatia - a side that has 10 or 11 quality players.
"I believe that my team can continue to play well. The important thing is to recover our energy."
Zdovc was happy, but already concentrating on what lies ahead.
"The reason why we won was rebounding," Zdovc said.
"But we have no time to enjoy this win because my players are already focused on our next game."
Slovenia out-rebounded Turkey 35-32.
Ilyasova and Nachbar each finished with 16 points to lead all scorers.
Turkey hurt their own cause by making only 14 of their 21 free-throws while Slovenia were six of 11.
Slovenia prevailed over Turkey despite being without three injured players.
Goran Dragic (knee) and Domen Lorbek (neck) sat out the game and watched from the bench with captain Matjaz Smodis (back) still unavailable.
"We had three players out today but this team will keep on fighting and keep on winning, even if we have only five players left," Nachbar said.
"In two days, we will show up ready to play against Croatia."
Spain End Hosts' Run
Game Summary
Turning point: Pau Gasol scored the game's first seven points and Spain had their first double-digit lead, 19-9, courtesy of Navarro's three-pointer with just over two minutes to go in the first quarter. The world champions were in complete control all game.
Hero: Pau Gasol and Navarro. They combined for 19 of Spain's 23 first quarter points.
Stats: Navarro was on fire, connecting on seven of nine three-point attempts, several of them contested. He had 23 points on eight of 11 from the field in just 22 minutes of play.
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Spain crushed hosts Poland 90-68 to book their place in the last eight of EuroBasket 2009.
The win saw Sergio Scariolo's side improve to 3-2 to finish fourth in Group F of the Qualifying Round. Up next for them is a clash with unbeaten France (5-0) in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
"We had a good performance today," Gasol said afterwards. "We are growing as a team and we are very much alive in the tournament."
"It will be a tough game against France but we have to go through them to get anything done here. We very much look forward to it."
Navarro was pleased to find his way out of a recent shooting slump.
"I struggled shooting from long range in previous games, but today the shots seemed to go in and my team-mates have given me a lot of confidence," he said.
With the older of the two Gasol brothers and Navarro leading the way, the world champions jumped out to a 23-14 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back.
The center scored the game's first seven points and had 11 by the end of the period while the guard had eight to go along with three assists.
Navarro buried a step back three-pointer for the first double-digit lead, 19-9, with just over two minutes to go in the quarter.
Lukasz Koszarek got Poland within 27-18 on a lay-up early in the second quarter but Spain quickly reasserted their dominance and had a 42-26 cushion at the break.
The Spaniards were red hot from three-point range, connecting on seven of 14 attempts over the first two quarters. Alex Mumbru hitting two from the top of the key minutes apart before Navarro buried consecutive ones for a 38-22 advantage.
Meanwhile, Poland struggled mightily in the first half, hitting just 12 of 35 field goal attempts, including two of 12 from long range (compared to seven of 14 for Spain).
After the intermission, the Spaniards kept adding to Poland's misery and were up 50-30 when Navarro buried his fifth three-pointer.
He hit his sixth and seventh for a 58-38 score midway through the period and soon after headed to the bench for good.
The Spaniards also gave the fans something of a show as Ricky Rubio drove to the basket and flipped the ball back to Jorge Garbajosa who drained a top of the key three.
Marc Gasol then fed a perfect bounce pass to a cutting Rudy Fernandez who hung in the air for a double-pump lay-up and Sergio Llull had a breakaway dunk for a 66-38 advantage, their biggest lead of the game.
Logan buried a corner three-pointer to cut the deficit to 66-41, but Fernandez answered right back with one of his own. At that point, Spain were 12 of 21 from long distance.
They led 71-46 at the start of the final frame and Poland found some offense late on to outscore them 22-19 over the last 10 minutes for the final scoreline.
Afterwards, Scarialo gave credit to Poland, but admitted that on the day his team were just too good.
"I want to congratulate the Polish team. They improved a lot from their last participation by reaching this round. I think tonight they can't blame themselves," he said.
"My players deserved the win. They did what they had to do to make the opponents look weaker. We played excellent defense, moved the ball well and had good shooting percentages."
Poland head coach Muli Katzurin admitted competing against Spain was always going to be hard.
"It was no competition against Spain. We tried but they were superior in strength and quality. This is a team that is the best in Europe. It was tough to execute a game plan. For us the key was the game against Serbia. We lost it. We lost to a better team. Each game we played was tougher and tougher. I'm sure if we had been in the other group we could have won something more," he said.
Logan broke out of a recent shooting slump to record a team-high 20 points for Poland. Lukasz Koszarek added 17 and Marcin Gortat had 12 to go along with a dozen rebounds.
Sergio Scariolo (Spain Coach):
"For today's loss the polish players definitely can't blame themselves, it was our players who deserve the credit. We did everything to make our opponents look weak, we played good defense, moved the ball well and had high shooting percentage. And because of improved physical preparation of my players we are able to maintain a high tempo during longer stretches of the games."
Juan Carlos Navarro (Spain):
"We are delighted with the win, now we need to rest and continue this path we are going on now. We are very happy to be in the Quarter-Finals after all the problems we had before and during this tournament. We will look into France tomorrow and we will try to prepare the best possible way for this game."
Muli Katzurin (Poland Coach):
"With Spain playing like that today, we are no competition for them. We tried hard, but the gap was way too big. Maybe in other group we could win some games, but here teams were just better than us. We had various game plans prepared, but on this level of competition it was really hard to execute them properly."
Adam Wójcik (Poland):
"We were withdrawn and missed many shots from field. We didn't play bad basketball in this tournament. Crucial was the game against Serbia, which put us off our game. We tried to find and optimal solution, but we didn't manage it. We know that expectations were higher. This tournament gave us priceless experience, which is a great capital for the future. It was my last performance. I end my long carrier in national team"
Serbia Lock Down Third Spot
Game Summary
Turning Point: With Lithuania leading 75-71 with 4:29 to go, Serbia buried four consecutive three-pointers to lead 83-75 and take command.
Hero: Serbia guard Milos Teodosic nailed two of those crucial three pointers and led his team in scoring with 20 points while also handing out 12 assists.
Stats: Serbia nailed six three-pointers in the last four minutes of the game and finished an eye-popping 14 of 27 (52%) from long range. Lithuania turned the ball over 20 times.
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Lithuania put up a huge fight but it wasn't enough to beat Milos Teodosic and Serbia who won their Qualifying Round Group F clash in Lodz, 89-79.
The result sealed third place for Dusan Ivkovic's men and set up a Quarter-Final showdown with Russia in Katowice.
Serbia guard Milos Teodosic nailed two of those crucial three-pointers and led his team in scoring with 20 points while also handing out 12 assists.
Immediately after the game, Lithuania coach Ramunas Butautas announced in his press conference that he had resigned.
Butautas, with more experienced players in the squad the previous two summers like Sarunas Jasikevicius and Ramunas Siskauskas, captured a bronze medal at EuroBasket 2007 and reached the Semi-Finals at last year's Olympics.
This year, however, Lithuania lost their opening Group D games to Turkey and Poland before defeating Bulgaria.
They crashed to heavy losses in the Qualifying Round to Slovenia, Spain and slipped up against Serbia on Wednesday.
"We controlled the game but they played patiently and killed us with late three-pointers," Butautas said.
"We go home. We played badly and we only won one game.
"I must leave this team now and I wish them all the best."
The architect of their demise in Butautas' final game was Teodosic.
"Teodosic has been a great performer for us in this tournament," said Serbia guard Milenko Tepic, who contributed 13 points.
"We hope he can continue to play like this in our next games."
There was little Lithuania could do with Serbia nailing six three-pointers in the last four minutes of the game and finishing an eye-popping 14 of 27 (52%) from long range.
Lithuania were without injured duo Mantas Kalnietis and Simas Jasaitis for their final game but the Baltic nation saved their best performance for last and made Serbia worked hard for the victory.
The Baltic men led by as many as seven points but weren't able to pull away.
"It was a very tough game," admitted Tepic.
"Lithuania is a very good side and it's a shame they haven't done well in this tournament."
The victory will be a big morale boost for Serbia in view of Thursday's showdown.
"Maybe the most important part in our game was that we scored many easy points and 24 assists," said Ivkovic.
"That kind of team basketball is what we need.
"I congratulate my players who played a great game."
"Now we prepare for Russia."
Lithuania made 11 of their 20 turnovers in the first half but trailed 41-37.
Inspired by their loyal fans, the Lithuanians went on a 15-5 run over the next four minutes, with Jonas Maciulis scoring seven points in that surge, to take a 52-46 lead.
Nenad Krstic made sure his team got back in the game scoring eight of his team's next 15 points to tie the contest 61-61 with one minute to go in the quarter.
Serbia scored five unanswered points but Darius Lavrinovic and Marijonas Petrovicius but Lithuania in front at 75-71 with 4:29 remaining.
Jonas Maciulis led the Baltic nation in scoring with 20 while Ksistof Lavrinovic contributed with 12 and made four of his team's 10 steals.
Having made just two of nine (22%) shooting from three-point range at the break, Lithuania finished a respectable six of 18 (33%).
Lithuania were 13 of 20 (65%) from the free-throw line while Serbia converted 19 of 26 (73%) from the charity stripe.
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