‘12 Giant Men’ ready and raring for Slovenia

The Turks used a 21-4 run during the second and third quarters to conquer the French and send “Les Bleus” packing from the Worlds.

Phoenix Suns forward Hidayet “Hedo” Türkoğlu scored 20 points and Sinan Güler added 17, while playing their first Worlds tournament match at the new Sinan Erdem Dome. A near capacity crowd of 15,000 -- including 22 members of Turkey’s national football squad who sat courtside --watched the home team shoot 35 out of 55 from the field in the round of 16 game. Charlotte Bobcats forward Boris Babacar Diaw-Riffiod, better known as Boris Diaw, led France with 21 points, and San Antonio Spurs Nando de Colo added 15.

The result means the “12 Giant Men” will march majestically into the last eight, or quarterfinals, where they will be slugging it out with Slovenia, who demolished Australia 87-58 on Sunday for a berth in the next round, which will feature four knock-out matches. On Sunday, the Slovenians hit 16 of 33 three-point attempts to rout the Aussies 87-58. Jaka Lokovic scored 19 points for Slovenia and his corner three-pointer in the game’s opening seconds sparked a 12-0 run. Primoz Brezec of the Milwaukee Bucks had 12 points and Goran Dragic added 10 points and eight assists for Slovenia.

Australia didn’t score until Joseph Ingles’ layup four and a half minutes into the game. Ingles and Patrick Mills of the Portland Trailblazers each had 13 for the Boomers, who made only 18 of their 58 field goal attempts. “Everybody knows the Turkish fans are loud,” a visibly frustrated Diaw said.

For his part, French coach Vincent Collet was busy crying over spilled milk. “We did make mistakes, especially on defense. We missed our defensive rotations two or three times and gave them easy layups,” he said. “It would have been better to play Russia or Greece, but not Turkey this year. Not this Turkey especially,” he further noted. He however said that he admired the “12 Giant Men” and congratulated them on their victory.

Talismanic Hedo

Hedo, who more than doubled his points-per-game average from Turkey’s five preliminary round wins, then sparked the decisive run as he flashed the same point forward skills that helped propel his former NBA team, the Orlando Magic, into the 2009 NBA Finals. He drove past Diaw and whipped a pass over Ali Traore to a diving Oğuz Savaş for a layup. Savaş was fouled on the shot and made the free throw. On Turkey’s next possession, he drove around France’s defense again, this time for a layup of his own. The only bad news for the Turkish team came with five minutes left in the third quarter, when guard Kerem Tunçeri apparently hurt his right foot in a collision with de Colo and limped off the court with help from his teammates. Initial reports said he should be fit by Wednesday.

By the end of the third quarter, the game had taken on the feeling of a fiesta -- rather the feeling of a sports competition. The Turkish players slapped hands, bumped chests and smiled as they went to the bench for the break. The crowd chanted and did a Mexican wave. Not even two consecutive Nicolas Batum dunks to close the gap to 71-49 early in the fourth quarter stopped their singing. Turkey made nine of 19 three-pointers, while France made 12 of 24, but scored 10 fewer field goals.

Skeptics silenced

Few, if any, international basketball experts gave Turkey any chance of advancing beyond the first round. But we did. In our special supplement that was published specifically for this occasion on Aug. 28, we wrote the following: “Host Turkey, sixth in Tokyo in 2006, is also a top favorite because it will get tremendous support from its home supporters -- their sixth player.”

“In short Turkey, ranked just behind Russia, is expected to make a surprising run. With the likes of Hidayet ‘Hedo’ Türkoğlu, who will be playing in his last Worlds, Ersan İlyasova, Omer Aşık, Semih Erden, Kerem Gönlüm and Co. in its line-up, Turkey seems capable of taking any bull by the horn.”

As so it was foretold and the “12 Giant Men” have won six straight -- with group match victories over Cote d’Ivoire, Russia, Greece, Puerto Rico, China and a round of 16 victory over the French on Sunday. An air of cautions optimism is hovering over the national team camp and the 12 Giant Men are talking big, but not gloating.

“Wednesday’s match will be a thriller,” Hedo said. “The winner will advance to the quarter finals. And we have never made the World quarters before. So there is no need to exaggerate the triumph over France. Let’s savor this victory tonight [Sunday] and then wake up the next day to start preparing for the toughie against Slovenia,” he added.

Sinan, the other star of the night, was also cautious. “We played well as a team, both in attack and defense,” he said. “If we continue performing this way, then there is no team we cannot handle.”

Turkey and the “12 Giant Men” are therefore itching to rewrite history by beating and sending the Slovenians home peacefully.

Argentina and Brazil vie for quarters berth 

A South American derby between Argentina and Brazil will tonight determine who gets the only remaining berth in the FIBA World Basketball Championship quarter finals.

After winning four straight games at the beginning of the tournament, top-ranked Argentina took the second place in Group A following a defeat against Serbia in the last match of the preliminary groups. In the opening game, Argentina beat Germany 78-74 and edged Australia out 74-72 in the second match. The South American side later clinched easy victories over Angola and Jordan, respectively.

Tonight the Argentines will rely on Houston Rockets’ power forward Luis Scola, who, with an average of 29, is also the tournament’s highest scorer, and on Real Madrid point guard Pablo Prigioni, who has made the second highest number of assists in the tournament. Argentina aims to make it to the podium, where it stood in the 2002 Worlds after winning a silver medal.

Brazil came out of Group B, where it gave the US a hard time, to take the third spot with three victories and two defeats. Holding 14th place in the FIBA ranking, the Brazilians have one of the best records in the World Basketball Championship. In the early years of the championship, the South American side won two gold, two silver and two bronze medals in 15 appearances.

Unable to make it to the knockout stage in the 2006 Worlds, Brazil seeks to advance to the top eight of the tournament by beating their archrivals Argentina under the helm of their Argentinean coach Ruben Magnano. Magnano guided his native country to the title in the 2004 Summer Olympics after a victory over the US. He will face former students in the closing match of the Round of 16 at 9 p.m. at İstanbul’s Sinan Erdem Dome, which hosts the championship games starting from the knockout stage to the final.

In today’s opening game, unbeaten Lithuania meets China. The Lithuanians led Group D, which also featured defending champion Spain, without a single defeat. China earned a berth in the knockout stage after coming in fourth in Group C. The Chinese team saw a record loss, 87-40, when it played host Turkey and drew cyber-rage from home. The match starts at 6 p.m. ESRA MADEN İSTANBUL

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