Turkey ends dismal Euros

KOPER, Slovenia

Forward Serhat Çetin drives to the basket during Turkish national basketball team’s EuroBasket defeat to Russia. AA photo

Turkey bowed out of the European basketball championships with a final defeat to Russia on the night of Sept. 9, completing a disastrous EuroBasket 2013 campaign.

Russia won the game 89-77, as both teams completed a disappointing tournament.

Turkey, Sweden and Russia completed the Group D with 1-4 records, as Finland, Italy and Greece advanced to the next round. Sergey Karasev led the way for Russia with 25 points as well as five rebounds while Semen Antonov scored 14 points, Anton Ponkrashov hit for 13 and Alexey Savrasenko collected 12 points and five rebounds. Aleksey Shved chipped in eight points, nine assists and two blocks.

Turkey was led by Oğuz Savaş with 18 points while Kerem Gönlüm had 17 points, Ersan İlyasova tallied 13 and Ender Arslan added 12 points. “We didn’t find our energy to play our defence. The heart and morale of the team was down,” said Turkey coach Bogdan Tanjevic, who signaled that he is set to resign from the post.

“It’s clear that somebody in this situation has to step down,” said Tanjevic, who added a press conference is planned in Turkey for tomorrow.

That was Turkey’s worst EuroBasket performance since a 13th finish in Greece with a 1-5 winning record.

Turkey’s best performances in European and World Championships came in home soil, when the team won silver medals in 2001 and 2010 respectively. Apart from them, Turkey never made it past the quarterfinals since 1949.