The "12 Giant Men," as the Turkish men's national basketball team is called, cruised past Ukraine 86-73 in their opening Group Cup Eurobasket 2009 qualifying game at Ä°stanbul's Abdi Ä°pekçi Sports Arena on Wednesday night.



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Fenerbahçe Ülker big man OÄŸuz SavaÅŸ scored half his team's points in a 12-2 run to close out the second period and give Turkey a 51-37 halftime lead, which it never relinquished. SavaÅŸ, Efes Pilsen's Kerem Gönlüm and NBA All-Star Hedo TürkoÄŸlu scored 15 apiece to lead Turkey.
TürkoÄŸlu also recorded seven rebounds and five assists, while BC Triumph's Kerem Tunçeri hit three three-pointers en route to 13 points and Ersan Ä°lyasova of Barcelona posted 10 points and 12 boards. Artem Butskyy and Andriy Agafonov led Ukraine with 15 points each.

The French also started strong in this group, pulling away in the second half after leading just 34-33 at the break to bash Belgium 82-63. Cholet Basket guard Nando De Colo shined with 18 points in 27 minutes and Tony Parker contributed 19 to lead the French. Sam Van Rossom scored 17 and Christophe Beghin added 12 for Belgium.

Turkey travels to Belgium on Saturday, while Ukraine entertains France in their second qualifying group matches for the Eurobasket 2009 proper that will be hosted by Poland.

Elsewhere Meir Tapiro of Bnei Hasharon hit a pair of free-throws with less than a second left in regulation to force overtime and then Maccabi Tel Aviv big man Yaniv Green stepped up in overtime as Israel beat Great Britain 102-92 in a Group D thriller in Tel Aviv.

In Group A, which has been playing for two weeks, Partizan Igokea forward Novica Velickovic scored 20 to lead Serbia past Bulgaria 74-64, knotting the teams atop that group's standings at 3-1.

Qualifying action continues on Saturday with tough battles involving Italy and Serbia, Great Britain and the Czech Republic.




05 September 2008, Friday