Turkey Dominate Czechs To Qualify

Center Semih Erden made sure Turkey would not miss out on the EuroBasket party with a 21-point, 11-rebound double-double

Turkey turned on the style for the first time in the EuroBasket Qualification Round on Tuesday and blew out the Czech Republic to claim a spot in next year's Final Round.

Having won just four of their first seven games, Bogdan Tanjevic's team cruised to a 81-58 triumph in Istanbul and took sceond place in Group F.

The margin of victory was so great that Turkey managed to overcome their 18-point setback at the Czechs on 27 August, with Tuesday's result giving Tanjevic and Co an advantage in a head-to-head tie-breaker that allows them to finish as runners-up to Italy.

The heavy defeat has sentenced the Czechs (5-3) to third place in Group F, although the team has still met the main aim of advancing to next year's EuroBasket.

The sense of urgency was there for Turkey on Tuesday.

They had to win to be certain of going through to the Final Round.

Roared on by the home fans, they stormed into a 25-17 lead by the end of the first quarter and stretched that to 44-24 inside the final minute of the first half when veteran forward Kerem Gonlum made a lay-up.

Gonlum had 14 of his 20 points in the opening two quarters and center Semih Erden poured in 11 of his 21 before the break.

The Czechs never threatened to win the game, with the hosts going on top by as many as 29 early in the fourth quarter.

What the Czech Republic did do, however, was mount a late comeback that saw them trail 75-55 with 3:16 to go.

Even with nine seconds to play, Jiri Welsch hit a three-ball to cut the hosts' lead to 79-58.

Gonlum answered immediately, catching a pass from Ender Arslan and dunking on a fast break for an 81-58 lead with just seconds remaining.

Erden had 11 rebounds while Emir Preldzic dished out a team-high six assists.

Quotes Turkey vs. Czech Republic

Czech Republic head coach Pavel Budinsky
"Congratulations to Turkey. Before the game we knew that it was a tough game and we were expecting such a hard game. They showed an outstanding effort on defense the result of which can be seen at the half-time score. Actually, we started the game well but after some of our key players got into foul trouble we couldn't get enough support from the bench players. In the second half, we aimed to hold Turkey to an 18-point lead but we couldn't do it this either. Anyway, we are happy to have qualified for EuroBasket 2013. It was a great success for the Czech Republic. Turkey is a basketball country and I'm happy to be here in a great atmosphere and play against them."

Turkey head coach Bogdan Tanjevic
"It was important to win this game. We knew that we had to defeat our rivals by 19 points of difference to grab the second place in the group and I'm glad that we did it. We had two goals before these qualification games. The first one was of course taking the ticket to Slovenia and the second one was testing the young players. It was risky but it was included in the Turkish Basketball Federation's new plan. We wanted to give a chance to the young generation to gain experience. Now, we have different goals such as a medal at Eurobasket 2013, qualification for the World Cup and the Olympics. Next year, we will have a combination of young and veteran players and I hope we will get new success."

Czech Republic player Petr Benda
"We started to game very bad and we couldn't decrease the gap until the end of the game. In the first half we gave them so many second- chance points and we made unforced turnovers. These two factors were the main reasons for the defeat."

Turkey player Doğuş Balbay
"In the first game in the Czech Republic game, we didn't get what we wanted and were defeated by 18 points difference. I'm happy for winning the return game in front of our spectators. We began our path with a young team and sometimes we made easy mistakes but in the end, we won the ticket for Slovenia which was important for us. I want to congratulate my teammates."