EuroBasket 2009 qualifying: Turkey, Serbia near qualification
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A pair of teams have half the battle of making the EuroBasket 2009 final round almost won after taking bigger leads in their qualifying round groups with just two games left to play. Turkey is the only undefeated team left of 17 in the tournament after everyone has played at least four games. In Group C, Turkey's convincing 64-86 road win at Ukraine means that its next victory might not even be necessary to clinch a spot in next summer's final round in Poland. Kerem Gonlum of Efes Pilsen paced Turkey with 17 points. In Group A, Serbia neared qualification by lifting its record to 5-1 with a 61-89 road blowout in Hungary as Uros Tripkovic of Partizan Belgrade poured in 20 points. Elsewhere, FYR of Macedonia won 80-78 over visiting Latvia as those two groups tied for first place in Group B and Great Britain seized first place in Group D when it stopped visiting Israel 96-86 behind 22 points and 11 rebounds from Pops Mensah-Bonsu of DKV Joventut.
In Group A, Serbia practically punched its ticket to next summer's final round by downing host Hungary 61-89. Serbia holds first place in the group with a 5-1 record, while Hungary fell to 2-5. Serbia made sure of the victory early, zooming ahead 35-56 by halftime and concentrating on defense thereafter to avoid any rallies by Hungary. Tripkovic led the winners with 20 points on 4-for-5 three-point shooting. Zoran Erceg of Olympiacos chipped in 13 points and Kosta Perovic added 12. Serbia's defense held Hungary to one double-digit scorer, Istvan Nemeth with 11 points. Italy righted its ship with a 62-69 road win over Finland to go 3-4 in the group. Italy's defense shut down Finland scorers Hanno Mottola and Petteri Koponen, holding them to 12 points, while forcing 17 turnovers on the hosts. Matteo Soragna of Benetton Treviso scored 18 points and Massimo Bulleri of Armani Jeans Milano 17 for the winners. Finland pulled within 62-65 with 18 seconds left, but Mordente aced 4 of 4 free throws to seal the win.
There is a tie atop first place in Group B after FYROM stayed a step ahead of visiting Latvia down the stretch to win 80-78 in Skopje. Both teams have 3-1 records now. Vrbica Stefanov led the winners with 16 points, while Pero Antic and Riste Stefanov added 14 each. FYROM rocketed in front 28-17 after a quarter, but Latvia rallied to go ahead by the middle of the third and the game stayed close to the finish. Group B produced a road winner, too, as Portugal upset hosts Estonia 54-60 to gain its first victory of the tournament. Portugal used a 6-20 third-quarter blast to take over the lead and hang on even after Estonia responded with a 24-8 run in the final quarter. Paulo Cunha led the winners with 21 points.
In Group C, Turkey put one foot in EuroBasket 2009's final round next summer when it blasted its way to a 64-86 victory over Ukraine on the road in Kiev on Saturday. The victory left Turkey undefeated at 4-0 in Group C, while Ukraine fell to 1-3. Gonlum led Turkey with 17 points, while his Efes Pilsen teammate Ender Arslan popped in 13. The aggressive defense designed by Fenerbahce Ulker head coach Bogdan Tanjevic forced Ukraine into 23 turnovers as Turkey took control with a 14-4 run before and after halftime that established double-digit leads the rest of the way. France bounced back from consecutive losses with a 65-71 road win over Belgium that was good for exclusive hold on second place in the group. France did not trail from tipoff to final buzzer, but saw Belgium tie 51-51 on the first shot of the fourth quarter. Stephen Brun hit the next two baskets and Nando De Colo of Cholet Basket a free throw to end the threat. Tony Parker led the winners with 18 points.
Great Britain took over first place in Group D with a solid 96-86 victory over visiting Israel in Liverpool, England. Great Britain is 3-1, while Israel fell to 1-3. Mensah-Bonsu paced the winners with his double-double while Luol Deng added 20 points. Lior Eliyahu had 24 points in 20 minutes for Israel. GB took over with a 54-35 advantage in the middle quarters and never looked back on the way to the top of the group table. Bosnia-Herzegovina got back in the Group D race, tying for second place, with a 95-79 win over visiting Czech Republic. Both teams have 2-2 records now. Mirza Teletovic of Tau Ceramica led the winners with 20 points, the same as Jiri Welsch of Unicaja scored for the Czechs.
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Sunday, September 14, 2008
Euroleague.net
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