By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The final score of the game was 72-68 for Turkey over Montenegro, however, the second game of Group A was decided by a very smaller margin and a questionable call.
Furkan Korkmaz gave to Turkey the 69-68 lead with 23 seconds left, Vladimir Mihailovic missed the chance to give the advantage to Montenegro, but Marko Simonovic got the rebound.
Here things got tricky, with Simonovic being called for an offensive foul to Cedi Osman with four seconds left and ultimately Turkey getting the ball. Korkmaz with one more three at the buzzer gave his team a four-point final difference.
As Montenegrin coach, Bosko Radovic, said in the press conference: “Congratulations to Turkey, we also played a great game, but why we didn’t win? Don’t ask me I don’t know… Those who have seen the game know what happened. It’s better for me to say nothing”.
Simonovic added: “We need to forget about this and focus on the next game”.
“There was one call in the end, questionable, I don’t know, but it was a terrible game for us”, said Turkey coach Ergin Ataman.
Despite the questionable last call, the game was a dogfight with Shane Larkin scoring 18 points and dishing seven assists for Turkey. Osman added 15 points, Alperen Sengun scored 12 and Korkmas had nine.
Bojan Dubljevic with 18 points led a balanced effort for Montenegro which was trailing by 10 at halftime (41-31), made the comeback, but couldn’t get the win.
On the contrary, in the last game of the group, hosts Georgia lost to Belgium in overtime with veteran Jonathan Tabu making a huge three for the 79-76 win. Duda Sanadze had the last shot but failed to send the game to a second overtime.
It was also a very physical game, Jean-Marc Mwema and Tabu leading the scorers of the winning side with 14 points each.
Georgia in front of their home crowd, but without their injured captain, Toko Shengelia gave a fight but 18 points by Sandro Mamukelasvhili, 17 by Thad McFadden, and 14 by Goga Bitadze were not enough.