GB’s win helps Turkey advance at EuroBasket

Despite a surprise loss at the hands of Poland on Sunday, the Turkish national basketball team guaranted a place in the second round at the European Basketball Championships when Great Britain beat Poland Monday

Turkey advanced to the second round at the 2011 European Basketball Championships on Monday thanks to a victory by Great Britain.

Despite a surprise 84-83 loss at the hands of Poland on Sunday, the "12 Giant Men" guaranteed a place in the next round when Great Britain beat Poland 88-81 on Monday.

Turkey was playing defending champion Spain as the Hürriyet Daily News went to print late Monday.

Turkey, Great Britain and Poland are level on six points, but Turkey has the best points average among the three teams.

Great Britain’s victory on Monday came on the back of brilliant performances by Luol Deng and Joel Freeland. Deng scored a game high 28 points, while Freeman dished in 27 points, including 12 field goals.

Adam Hrycaniuk and Lukasz Koszarek score 15 each for the losing side.

Also on Monday, Yaniv Green scored one of two free throws with one second to go in the game to carry Israel to a 96-95 victory against Italy.

Guy Pnini led Israel with 22 points, while Lior Eliyahu added 16 points and seven rebounds.

In Group D, Earl Rowland scored 25 points and Kaloyan Ivanov chipped in 15 points and nine rebounds as Bulgaria beat Georgia 79-69.

In Group C, Finland booked its place in the second round after beating Montenegro 68-65.

Poor performance

The Polish side put on a much better performance on Sunday when it beat the "12 Giant Men."

Kerem Tunçeri missed a potential game-winning three-pointer at the death for Turkey after Dardan Berisha's jumper had given Poland a one-point lead.

Berisha was outstanding for the Poles, pouring in a game-high 21 points and was one of four Polish players to finish in double figures.

Despite being outrebounded 31-21, the Poles did most of the damage from behind the arc.

They shot 10 of 22 from three-point range while Turkey finished four for 17.

Young center Enes Kanter led Turkey with 19 points while Ersan İlyasova had 14.

Poland went into the final quarter with a one-point lead.

Though Turkey led through much of the fourth quarter, Poland retook the lead on a three-pointer by Piotr Pamula with 44 seconds remaining.

After Kanter sank two free throws, Berisha hit the game-winner over Tunçeri.

"We did too many things wrong", Turkey coach Orhun Ene said. "We lost our focus at times on defense."

Ene also put some of the blame on the referees. I will not use the referees decisions as an excuse for our defeat, but I have never witnessed such a poor performance from refs, Ene said. The decisions were nothing like the regular ones in the European leagues and our domestic league.

Monday, September 5, 2011
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
GB’s win helps Turkey advance at EuroBasket
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