France will not face Spain in the 1/8 finals. This is the main news from the start of the afternoon since Sergio Scariolo’s players secured first place in Group A by winning 72-69 against Turkey. As the Blues cannot finish 4th in their group, there will be no reunion between the best enemies of European basketball. On the other hand, Turkey could be the opponent of the French team, while the Spaniards will face Lithuania, winner of Bosnia. Not a gift…
In this Group A final, he finally had to wait for the “money time” for Spain to get rid of the Turkish band-aid. For 35 minutes, we witnessed a permanent crossover with the Osman-Sengun duo to respond to the Hernangomez brothers. It was a good passage from Usman Garuba which allowed the Spaniards to attack the last quarter with a six-point lead (56-50). Except that the Turks will never let go, even to the point of taking control thanks to a tap from Alperen Sengun (57-56).
Alperen Sengun’s exit is expensive
Very active, the young pivot of the Rockets collects two stupid faults, and he joins the bench with five faults. This is the turning point of the match (59-59). The Turks no longer have a foothold inside, and Cedi Osman’s opportunism is no longer enough. Especially since the referees whistled a severe technical foul on Furkan Korkmaz, guilty of stepping on the line on a throw-in. Lorenzo Brown, very fair, put the throw and Spain took a two-point lead (67-65 ) with 90 seconds remaining.
Sengun absent, the Turks are trapped on the rebound, and Xabi Lopez-Arostegui scores yet another basket on second chances (69-65). Spain only had to manage their lead, but they let Osman register a “floater” with the fault. The Cleveland winger puts his throw, and the suspense is revived (69-68). There are 48 seconds left.
It is all the more revived as Spain misses a snack shot at the end of possession. Turkish rebound, then time-out with possession to snatch victory. Unfortunately for the Turks, they play the throw-in badly, and Alberto Diaz deflects the ball at Shane Larkin. The ball returned to Spain, who finally won 72-69 after a final exchange of free throws.
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