Turkey knocked out of EuroBasket after defeat by Spain

ISTANBUL

AFP photo

Turkey has been knocked out of EuroBasket 2017 after being defeated by tournament favorite Spain 73-56 on Sept. 10 evening.      

The Round 16 match in Istanbul’s Sinan Erdem Dome saw a resilient Turkish squad, as they managed to handle Spain for three quarters of the clash.      

The Turkish men’s national basketball team, known as the “12 Giant Men,” were down but not completely out throughout the first three quarters, as they were only down by six and 49-43 after 30 minutes.
  
Spain, which has an NBA-patented squad in the tournament including Ricky Rubio, Pau Gasol and his brother Marc Gasol, was too powerful for the Turkish youngsters in the fourth quarter and managed to outscore Turkey by 11 points.      

For Turkey, Furkan Korkmaz’s game-high 20 points and five rebound performance was not enough.   
   
Point guard Ricky Rubio scored 15 points, while Sergio Rodriguez chipped in 11 points and dished out nine assists on the way to Spain’s victory.      

Spain, with the win, advanced to the quarter finals and set up a clash with Germany.     
 
In the last matchup of the day, Russia dominated Croatia in the last two quarters to advance to the quarter final.      

Russians shot the lights out from the three-point line (24/35) to make Croatians pay for their mistakes and win the match 101-78.      

Point guard Alexey Shved was on top form and finished with 27 points and 12 assists in the victory.      
Here are the quarter final matchups in EuroBasket 2017:      

Germany - Spain      

Slovenia - Latvia      

Greece - Russia      

Italy - Serbia