By Semih Tuna/ Stuna@eurohoops.net
Turkey and Spain have a 3-1 record in Group A after today’s game, good for a spot in the Round of 16, while the other four teams of the group will fight for the last two remaining tickets.
On the back of the double-overtime loss to Georgia and the alleged attack on Furkan Korkmaz, Turkey led from start to finish en route to the comfortable 78-63 victory against Belgium Tuesday.
The Philadelphia 76ers sharpshooter was fine, especially early in the EuroBasket Group A Gameday 4 fixture. Pounding the opponents with 11 points in 13 minutes punched in an advantage peaking at 19 points in the first half. Cooling off, Korkmaz ended up with 16 points, behind 6/12 field goals.
Alperen Sengun of the Houston Rockets threw in ten of his 24 points in the third quarter preventing the chance for yet another rally at Tbilisi Arena and also tallied eight rebounds and six assists over 31 minutes. Fellow NBA player of Turkey, Cedi Osman chipped in eight more points, after being held to one point in the first half.
Brushing off a question about FIBA’s ruling on Turkey’s protest for the 22 seconds left out of the recent game opposite Georgia, head coach Ergin Ataman warned about his team focusing on the next challenges. “We showed our potential on the court today. And they will also see our potential in Germany,” he mentioned after the win versus Belgium.
Spain blowing out Montenegro, 82-65, officially advanced Turkey to the next round. La Roja made the cut as well. The progressing sides going up to 3-1 will battle for the top seed in a direct collision Wednesday to wrap up the round-robin schedule of the Tbilisi group.
Dario Brizuela was the top scorer pouring 18 points for the team coached by Sergio Scariolo. Willy Hernangomez posted a 14-point, 13-rebound double-double, while fellow NBA bigs Juan Hernangomez and Usman Garuba put in six and two points, respectively. Lorenzo Brown and Jaime Pradilla added 12 points each.
Marko Simonovic of the Chicago Bulls ended up with 11 points on the losing side of the one-sided affair. Experienced point guard Vladimir Mihailovic recorded 18 points and Kendrick Perry combined ten points with nine assists.
Staving off elimination, Bulgaria matched Georgia at 1-3 and in a convincing fashion. Instrumental to the 92-80 victory were Dee Bost and Sasha Vezenkov posting a 33-point, 12-assist, and 28-point, 14-rebound double-doubles, respectively. Contributing 13 triples in the team total of 19/39 from three-point range was an additional bonus.
Returning to action and recovering from injury, Goga Bitadze had 21 points for the team coached by Ilias Zouros. Fellow NBA player Sandro Mamukelashvili ended up with 13 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, one steal, and one block.
Two berths in the next round are at stake, Bulgaria opposite Belgium and Georgia opposite Montenegro on Gameday 5.
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL