By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
After Ergin Ataman had some critical words about the atmosphere in Georgia, Turkish fans come to help, and Turkey got the 87-101 win against Bulgaria in Group A, for a 2-2 tie with Spain on top of the group standings.
Both Cedi Osman (25 p. 8 r.,11/15 FG) and Alperen Sengun (20 p. 9/10 FG 9 r. 4 as.) were decisive in leading Turkey to the final victory, with Seamus Hazer (10 p.) and Bugrahan Tuncer (10 p. 3 r., 7 as.) helping on the offensive end.
Shane Larkin also had a good game (13 p. 8/8 FT 9 as.) and that’s how he and his teammates go 2-0 in Group D, while the Bulgarian team remains winless.
“We didn’t find the way to stop the P&R with Bost and Vezenkov, they created us big problems. Our defense wasn’t good, the positive thing is that we share very well the ball. Sengun dominated in the end”, said Ergin Ataman. “We should improve our defense, but on offense, we don’t have every problem: we score 100 points every game”, Bugrahan Tuncer added.
Bulgaria delivered a collective team effort, but the two main stars of Barchovski’s team shone more than anybody else: Dee Bost (12 p., 5 r., and 13 as.) played like he had his Galatasaray jersey on, while Alexander Vezenkov (28 p., 15 r.) proves once more why he can compete for the EuroBasket scoring leader award. But they were not enough.
“I expected a tough game. We lost it in the last quarter because our leaders Dee Bost and Vezenkov were tired”, Rosen Barchovski said after the game. “We competed, we played way better than against Spain. The main thing for us is to give ourselves a chance, but games last 40 minutes”, Dee Bost added.
It has been a high-scoring game from the beginning, as the first quarter ended at 29-31. Bulgaria gave the impression of being able to fight until the end, but the show offered by Alperen Sengun in the second half destroyed the opponents, despite a good shooting execution by Chavdar Kostov (15 points and 4/8 from the arc). Ataman decided not to use Furkan Korkmaz, who took an extra day off due to his back spasm.
In the last game of the night, Rudy Fernandez made history against Georgia. It was his 240th game with the national team, surpassing legendary Juan Antonio San Epifanio and chasing Juan Carlos Navarro who has the Spanish national team record with a total of 253 games.
Rudy has reached this historic figure thanks to a seamless commitment: since his debut in 2004 (Athens Olympic Games) he has only missed one Eurobasket due to injuries.
“It’s very hard to be original speaking for Rudy, he is amazingly committed, vocal and now he understood that he is the only old buccaneer left from the pirate ship and he wants to continue this heritage with the younger guys”, said coach Sergio Scariolo about his player.
“He had a brilliant career, being so many years on the court trying to do his best with his club and national team, giving 100% every time. He’s great, I cannot say anything more”, added Georgia’s coach Ilias Zouros.
As for the game itself, unfortunately for Georgia, it turned into a trivial affair. Spain got an easy 90-64 win with Willy Hernangomez having 14 points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes, while Jaume Pradilla scored 12 points in 14 minutes.
Scariolo used all his players and had the chance to rest his main unit. “It was one more step forward, you can see the contribution of our bench”, Scariolo said after the game.
Georgia got 13 points by 21-years old Rati Andronikashvili but wasn’t competitive. “I would like to apologize for our performance, it was terrible, we had zero fighting spirit”, said coach Ilias Zouros
Earlier, Montenegro was limited to eight points in the last quarter but topped Belgium, 76-70.
Bojan Dubljevic posted a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double before fouling out and Kendrick Perry poured 19 points. Retin Obasohan stood out for the Lions with a game-high 25 points in the losing effort.
Still, the two teams are tied at 1-1 between the third and fourth place in the Group.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL