Turkey takes down host Germany at Eurobasket
BERLIN — Turkey got off to a blazing start and defeated host Germany 80-75 on Tuesday for its second victory at the European basketball championship.
Germany never recovered from a disastrous first quarter that left it trailing by 20 points as Turkey made 11 of 13 field goal attempts.
Dennis Schroder, who scored 14 of his game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter, brought Germany within seven in the final quarter, but Turkey held on for a victory that improves its chances of advancing to the knockout stage. Turkey is now 2-1, while Germany fell to 1-2 in the tough Group B.
Earlier, Serbia ensured it would advance by beating Iceland 93-64.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 15 points for Germany but did not play particularly well and sat out most of the final quarter. He made two free throws for the final score.
Supported by a vocal and what looked like a majority Turkish crowd in the arena, Turkey led by as many as 21 and was paced by 17 points from Cedi Osman. Center Semih Erden added 16 points and nine rebounds in a big game. Ersan Ilyasova contributed 15. Ilyasova had nine points in the key first quarter.
All 12 Serbian players got on the score sheet against the speedy but undersized newcomers.
Nemanja Nedovic had 12 points for Serbia, center Miroslav Raduljica added 13, Nikola Kalinic had 12 and Ognjen Kuzmic, another center, had 11 points on 100 percent shooting from the field. He only missed one of four free throws. The World Cup silver medalists also dominated inside.
“We were very concentrated because you must not underestimate such a team as Iceland,” Raduljica said. “It’s a very atypical team, they all shoot 3s. It was tougher playing them than the result shows.”
Nedovic said Iceland is tricky to play against. “Sometimes it was tougher than in previous matches, we needed time to adjust to their game.”
Logi Gunnarsson led winless Iceland with a game-high 18 points.
Serbia improved to 3-0 in Group B.
In Group C in Zagreb, Croatia, Greece beat winless Georgia 79-68 to go 3-0 and will also advance. Nick Calathes had 19 points and eight assists for Greece.
Slovenia beat the Netherlands 81-74 for its second win in three games. The Dutch are 1-2.
Klemen Prepelic led Slovenia with 16 points, including four consecutive free throws down the stretch.
Zoran Dragic had 13 points, six rebounds and five assists. Dragic’s 3-pointer made it 75-70 with less than two minutes remaining. That was followed by Robin Smeulders, who finished with 14 points, making a jumper, before Dragic followed with a layup. Charlon Kloof made two free throws before Prepelic took over.
Kloof led all scorers with 24, but also had a costly turnover that led to Prepelic’s final free throws.
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