 |
‘12 giant men’ stand tall at basketball championship
Turkey, which had already won Group C, had a 20-0 scoring run at the beginning of the match and led 39-13 at the break. A slam dunk from Ömer Aşık brought Turkey's lead to 41 points in the final seconds of the third quarter. Semih Erden widened the gap to 47 points with 50 seconds to go in the game. Oğuz Savaş banged in 20 points for Turkey.
“We fielded some very young team members and rested some of our regular starters,” head coach Bogdan Tanjevic said after the match. “And I have to say that one of the best aspects of the game was that we did not underestimate our opponents,” he noted, adding that they had show the other side due respect. We kept our concentration intact and played with all seriousness.”
China (1-4) reached the next round in İstanbul on a point differential ahead of Ivory Coast and Puerto Rico. Russia (4-1) finished second and Greece (3-2) third.
Turkey's 47-point margin over China, the best basketball team on the Asian continent, was the highest so far and gave the Turks their fifth victory in as many matches and a match-up against fourth-place France of Group D in the knockout stage, which has now moved to İstanbul.
For pulverized Asian powerhouse China, the situation was very much akin to the timeless tale of “Gulliver's Travels” by 18th century Anglo-Irish satirist Jonathan Swift. In Lilliput, Gulliver was a giant, while in Brobdingnag, he was tiny. Similarly, the Chinese, giants in Asia, were reduced to the size of mere ants by Turkey's “12 giant men.”
MVP Oğuz said they felt relaxed having already been guaranteed group leadership. “We had already qualified as group leaders a day before our match [against China] kicked off,” he explained. “This boosted our confidence and made us feel relaxed. We put up a good fight and hope to keep the momentum going in the games ahead,” he added, apparently referring to their upcoming match against France on Sunday.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| BÜLENT KENEŞ |  |
||
| What befell Niyazi-i Misri in the past is happening to Fethullah Gülen now | |||
| EKREM DUMANLI |  |
||
| When a call for fairness and reason finds acceptance | |||
| ŞAHİN ALPAY |  |
||
| Uludere, test case for democracy in Turkey | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Are the Kurds mentally divorced from Turkey? | |||
| GÖKHAN BACIK |  |
||
| Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu: the inner bargain on Turkish foreign policy | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| Taking lessons from previous experiences with the military | |||
| YAVUZ BAYDAR |  |
||
| Qualm | |||
| ÖMER TAŞPINAR |  |
||
| A new phase in Syria? | |||
| İHSAN DAĞI |  |
||
| Turkish foreign policy: Time for a re-evaluation | |||
| SEYFETTİN GÜRSEL |  |
||
| Poor-friendly economic growth and the AK Party | |||
| CHARLOTTE MCPHERSON |  |
||
| Missing women, missing opportunities | |||
| BERK ÇEKTİR |  |
||
| Changes to incentives for investment in Turkey | |||
| MERVE BÜŞRA ÖZTÜRK |  |
||
| The 1960 coup: a final test for democracy | |||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
