The reports come courtesy of: http://www.eurobasket2009.org
Turkey/Spain
Game Summary
Turning point: Ender Arslan sliced inside the Spanish defense for a lay-up with 1:42 left to play that put Turkey up 61-58 and saw the world champions just dumbfounded as to what they could do to stop the smaller guards from getting to the basket with so much ease.
Hero: Turkey's big men. Omar Asik attacked Pau Gasol time and time again in the first half, outscoring him 13-8 and posterising him several times. Asik actually seemed quieter when guarded by Marc Gasol. The Turkish center seemed to give his team-mates the confidence to go at the Los Angeles Lakers star player and the other Spanish big guys who, Marc Gasol notwithstanding looked out of sorts on the day. Turkey's other center, Semih Erden, manhandled Pau down the stretch.
Stats: Turkey had four players score in double figures (Ersan Ilyasova with 15, Asik with 13 and Erden and Kerem Tunceri both with 11), none of whom was Hidayet Turkoglu. The versatile forward had just two points.
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Turkey used some strong inside play to hold off Spain 63-60 and remain unbeaten (3-0) in Group F of the EuroBasket 2009 Qualifying Round in Lodz.
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| Ömer Asik had a big first half for Turkey. |
Turkey led for most of a low-scoring final quarter and were up 61-60 with five seconds remaining but Spain still had one last chance to hand them their first loss.
Sergio Llull got the ball at the top of the key and drove right to the basket, but his dunk attempt was rejected by Ersan Ilyasova, who then found Semih Erden on the outlet. After being fouled hard by Llull - the foul was called unsportsmanlike - the Turkish center hit two free-throws to seal the win.
Afterwards, Spain head coach Sergio Scariolo said there was little more his team could have done.
"It was a very, very close game. Both teams played really hard the whole time. Turkey did better things in the last four or five minutes. We had big problems with our opponents getting offensive rebounds. We were playing good defense. We will keep going and we just have to focus on the next game," he said.
And Scariolo was happy with the choice his team made for the play that could have won them the game.
"We saw that Turkey put in four big men and we had quite a good penetrator in Sergio Llull. He beat his man and had a clear advantage. I don't know if it was a foul at the end."
Turkey were up 36-34 at the break but fell behind early in the third quarter as Spain used a 9-3 run to jump in front 43-37.
Juan Carlos Navarro scored his first five points of the game and the Gasol brothers combined well, Marc feeding Pau for an easy two before Rudy Fernandez came off a screen for a sweeping lay-up with 6:54 left in the period.
Turkey responded right away, running off 10 unanswered points with Ilysova accounting for six of them courtesy of a three-pointer and three free-throws and a 49-43 advantage.
The Spaniards were struggling, turning the ball over and committing questionable fouls. They were scoreless for more than 5:40, with Reyes's short jumper the first points since Fernandez's lay-up.
Jorge Garbajosa hit a corner three late in the third quarter to get Spain within one, 49-48, heading into the final frame.
Turkey were up by five, 55-50 after Engin Atsur hit a wide-open three-pointer from the wing and Erden hit a hook shot over Pau Gasol with 6:40 left to play.
Rudy Fernandez hit a corner three and Pau Gasol scored the next three points to edge Spain back in front, 56-55 but Ilyasova made a lay-up and Erden again scored for a 59-56 lead with under three minutes remaining.
Pau Gasol made a pair of free-throws before Ender Arslan slid between the Spanish defense for a lay-up and a 61-58 advantage with 1:52 left to play.
Spain were lucky to get within one as Ricky Rubio turned the ball over but Turkey returned the favour and Navarro made a lay-up with a minute to go.
In the first quarter, a rare Rubio three-pointer broke a 4-4 deadlock and Spain soon led 14-8 thanks to five quick points by Fernandez.
But Turkey came right back and, with Omer Asik proving too much for the Spaniards to handle down low, they edged in front 18-16 on his free-throw with about two minutes left in the period.
Fernandez accounted for the last two baskets of the period as the world champions led 22-20 heading into the second quarter.
Marc Gasol scored five quick points as Spain took their biggest lead of the first half, 27-20. In response, Turkey again turned to Asik, who got them back within one, 27-26.
Asik was playing so well, he was getting points even without scoring himself. After being fouled and missing both free-throws, he was accredited with two points when Pau Gasol miss-timed his jump and knocked the second foul shot into the basket for a 31-30 score in Spain's favour.
Kerem Tunceri hit a contested three-pointer over Ricky Rubio to edge Bogdan Tanjevic's side back in front 33-31.
Felipe Reyes banked a shot to put Spain in front but Ilyasova gave the Turks a 36-34 lead at the break when he buried a long bomb of his own just before the half-time buzzer sounded.
Serbia/Poland
Game Summary
Turning Point: With Poland trailing 64-62 with 5:24 to go, Serbia outscored their opponents 13-10 en route to victory.
Hero: Nenad Krstic poured in a game-high 18 points, pulled down eight rebounds and blocked two shots to pace the Serbians.
Key Stats: Serbia out-rebounded Poland 38-34.
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Serbia opened up a 16-point lead but then had to hold on for dear life and prevailed 77-72 over tournament hosts Poland in the second game of Saturday's Qualifying Round Group F in Lodz.
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| Lucasz Koszarek came off the bench to give Poland a lift with 16 points. |
Inspired by the excellent Lukasz Koszarek, Poland cut the gap to just two points and then had a chance to go on top but Koszarek missed from long range and Serbia rebounded.
The team from the Balkans then steadied the ship with four straight points on a pair of free-throws by Milenko Tepic and a dunk by Nenad Krstic.
Poland stayed within striking distance but Serbia held on for their third win at the EuroBasket.
The win improved Serbia to 2-1 in Group F and dropped the Poles to their second consecutive setback following their 87-69 loss to Turkey in the previous round.
"This is big win for us," said Serbia's Uros Tripkovic, who finished with 12 points.
"We played in a full arena, we played in a visiting court and we won so that shows the character of our team. It was an important win for us in this group.
"We didn't panic when they fought back. We just stayed focused on what we had to do and it was the right way to think."
Krstic was immense.
He poured in a game-high 18 points, pulled down eight rebounds and swatted two shots to pace the Serbians.
Milos Teodosic contributed 13 points, including seven in the final quarter.
Marcin Gortat and Koszarek had 16 points apiece for Poland.
More than 10,000 fans roared from start to finish at the Lodz Arena.
"I think that for a young team, that is not so experience, this game was a very big task," said Ivkovic.
"There was a lot of support for the Polish team.I think we controlled the game very well, and I think our defense was at a high level."
The Serbs limited Poland center Macej Lampe, who had gone into the contest as the third top scorer in the tournament with 17.7 points per game, to just two points in 20 minutes on the court while David Logan had just four at the break before finishing with 10.
"Our defense on Lampe and Logan was great," said Ivkovic.
Serbia led 43-36 at half-time, with Poland's Michal Ignerski leading all scorers with 13 points.
Gortat scored two consecutive baskets to cut the deficit 43-40 early in the third quarter but Ivkovic's side replied with an 13-0 run, with Krstic scoring six points in that surge.
Poland scored nine unanswered points as part of a 22-8 run over the next 10 minutes to cut the deficit 64-62 but that was as close as Muli Katzurin's side got.
"I think we didn't play like a team as we needed to," said Katzurin. "I expected us to play better, especially on defense.
"That didn't happen.
"We made unnecessary turnovers and that led to points."
Serbia out-rebounded Poland 38-34.
Slovenia/Lithuania
Game Summary
Turning point: Jaka Lakovic hit his fifth and sixth three-pointers early in the third quarter to make it 51-28 and put the game well and truly beyond Lithuania's reach.
Hero: Who else but Lakovic. He connected on his first four attempts from beyond the arc and had his game-high 24 points through three quarters of play.
Stats: While Slovenia had the hot hand, Lithuania struggled mightily, hitting just 38 percent of their shots (21 of 58 including six of 22 from three-point range).
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Slovenia eased their way past Lithuania 81-58 in Group F of the EuroBasket 2009 Qualifying Round in Lodz.
Jaka Lakovic erupted for a game-high 24 points as Jure Zdovc's side improved to 2-1 while the Lithuanians dropped to 0-3 and must now beat both Spain and Serbia in their remaining games to stand a chance of reaching the last eight.
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| Slovenia Fans were vastly outnumbered by their Lithuanian counterparts, but they left the arena in a much better mood. |
"We always do a very good job of passing the ball around and trying to find the open man or the one who has a good rhythm. I guess it was me today," he said afterwards.
Slovenia will also be encouraged by the performance of Uros Slokar, playing his first significant amount of minutes in the tournament after recovering from injuries. The center finished with 11 points and four rebounds in 19 minutes of play, allowing for Primoz Brezec to get some rest.
Up 43-26 at the break, Slovenia quickly got their lead to over 20 points early in the third quarter as Lakovic knocked down two three-pointers and Slokar scored down low in an 8-2 run for a 51-28 advantage.
The points also came in some style at times. Midway through the third period, Erazem Lorbek stole the ball near midcourt and found a streaking Goran Dragic who made a behind the back pass to Lakovic for a lay-up.
Lithuania got within 15, 71-55, on Mantas Kalnietis' basket with 6:15 left to play but Domen Lorbek then hit another three-pointer for Slovenia and they pushed the lead north of 20 for the final score.
Slovenia were the quickest out of the gates as Lakovic hit two three-pointers to put Slovenia up 12-8 early on.
Linas Kleiza then scored five straight points to edge Lithuania in front 13-12 before Slovenia finished the first period on a 15-6 run for their first double-digit lead of the night, 28-18, after Bostjan Nachbar buried a corner three-pointer in the closing seconds of the period.
After hitting their first five three-point attempts, Slovenia cooled off from long range but were scoring from inside the arc as Erazem Lorbek and Uros Slokar got some lay-ups for a 43-26 half-time lead.
Lakovic had 16 points by the break, hitting his first four three-point attempts and making good on all four of his free-throws.
Lithuania struggled mightily at both ends of the court and head coach Ramunas Butautas acknowledged as much afterwards.
"This is our worst performance in this tournament," he said after watching his team shoot just 36 percent (21 of 58) and turn the ball over 14 times.
"We were as bad on offense as on defense. I won't make my players the guilty ones. We hope we can do better in our last two games and make the most of our chances to still qualify for the quarter-finals."
"We played very badly. We all tried a lot of different things but none of them worked," conceded Lithuanian center Robert Javtokas.
