ISTANBUL (FIBA World Championship) – Slovenia have barely raised a sweat in disposing of Australia 87-58 in the Eight Finals at the FIBA World Championship.
It was an ominous performance by the fourth placed team from last year’s Eurobasket, and they did it thanks to a full board of contributors highlighted by Jaka Lakovic, who had 11 first half points on his way to 19 for the game. Primoz Brezec (12 points) and Goran Dragic (10 points) led the rest.
Australia itself has been suffering a long period of drought and it carried onto the basketball court in the first quarter, Slovenia leading 12-0 after nearly seven minutes. While Australia made a brief 6-0 run through Matt Nielsen and Patrick Mills, the quarter time score was 16-8.
When Lakovic and Sani Becirovic started the second quarter with consecutive triples the margin was 14, but worse was to come for Australia. The Boomers shot just 6/27 and gave up 9 turnovers for the half, and when Lakovic capped a 10-3 run with a three-pointer leading into half time the score was 42-21.
The second half was a more even affair but the game had long been decided. Slovenia won the third quarter 29-24, and the final term 16-13.
It was Australia’s largest defeat at a FIBA World Championship against an opponent not named the USA or the USSR. For the Boomers only Mills, Nielsen and Joe Ingles made it into double figures.
Slovenia now face the winner of the Turkey v France game in the FIBA World Championship Quarter Finals.
For complete highlights of this game plus an interview with Goran Dragic of Slovenia go to FIBATV.Com.
Quotes:
Slovenia guard Goran Dragic: "It's a fantastic feeling to have made it to the Quarter-Finals of the competition. We have worked so hard to arrive here and I think we did a great job today. We came out very strong, executed well and kept our focus from start to finish."
Australia captain Matthew Nielsen: "Slovenia are very strong and they proved that today. They executed very well and our execution was terrible. Having said that, I don't think we are far off from Slovenia's level which might sound a ridiculous comment to make today. But we are without several players and we can play much better than this, we just didn't show it today."
For the game, Slovenia was 16-for-33 from 3-point range. They shot just 33 percent (15th among the 24 teams) from downtown in pool play.
Slovenia’s Uros Slokar aggravated a sprained left ankle that he suffered in pool play. He limped off floor with 5:22 left in the third quarter and did not return.
Patty Mills had his usual burst of speed for Australia and got to the rim pretty easily on a couple of occasions, but he shot just 1-for-7 from 3-point range, finishing with 13 points and three assists.
Raptor center David Andersen shot poorly (2-for-7) as well.
Slovenia will play the winner of the France-Turkey game.
Turkey 95 def. France 77
ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Turkey and their vaunted zone defense paved the way for another dominating win at the FIBA World Championship on Sunday night against France.
Bogdan Tanjevic's team scored 13 points off 11 first-half turnovers to take command and then lowered the boom in the third quarter before pulling away for a 95-77 triumph.
The two-three zone employed by the Turks never gave France a chance.
With Omer Onan, Kerem Tunceri, Ender Arslan and Sinan Guler at the top of zone, Les Bleus couldn't cope.
When the French did throw the ball into the lane, the tall frontcourt of Turkey was an unmovable wall.
Hedo Turkoglu led the way with 20 points and the sensational Guler added 17.
Tunceri had a team-high three steals which all came in the first half when Turkey built a 43-25 advantage.
Vincent Collet's team managed to hang on for 26 minutes and only trailed 30-24 when Turkoglu and Co began to knock them out.
Tunceri came up with his third steal to trigger a fastbreak that Guler finished and after Ali Traore was called for travelling, an Oguz Savas three-point play made it 35-24.
France would end up closing the gap to 37-28 on a Florent Pietrus basket, but Turkey responded with an Ersan Ilyasova three-ball, another Savas basket and a Savas free-throw just two seconds from half-time for the 15-point edge.
Turkoglu began the second half with two three-pointers, Omer Asik made two free-throws and Onan had a lay-up for a 10-0 run that put the result beyond doubt.
Turkey ended up getting 21 points off turnovers for the game.
QUOTES
Turkey coach Bogdan Tanjevic: “I am very happy. We found France to be tough and playing great defense. Before Hidayet Turkoglu opened the shooting and from them on, we found everything easy. We played another good game, great defense and executed on offense.
(When asked if his team could be stopped) “I don’t know. I think we are ready, but also Slovenia are. They play with great intensity and it’s going to be another test for us.”
Turkey captain Hedo Turkoglu: “Everyone contributed to this win. This team deserves it, the crowd deserves it and our nation deserves it. We have two more games to get to where we want.”
France forward Florent Pietrus: “It was normal for Turkey to play like this. We knew it was going to be a tough game. We fought and we tried to show the best we had. Of course we have regrets. We made a big mistake in the last game and now we just have to look forward to next year.”
France coach Vincent Collet: "We knew at the start of the game that to have any chance we had to keep it close. At the beginning of the game I think it was ok, the difference was about six. But unfortunately the last two minutes of the half we did some bad mistakes, especially defensively, we missed rotations two or three times giving them two points, sometimes 'and one', and then the points differential was -15. Then at the start of the second half Turkoglu hit three big shots, and we give him complements for them because we were right there."
No comments:
Post a Comment