Turkey vs. Australia: FIBA World Cup 2014 Round of 16 Score and Twitter Reaction
Turkey mounted a late comeback after trailing for much of the 40 minutes, furiously battling back to defeat Australia 65-64 on Sunday and advance to the 2014 FIBA World Cup quarterfinals.
Sinan Guler and Emir Preldzic led the way for Turkey, both amassing a game-high 16 points. Ender Arslan added 11 more as the only three Turkish players in double figures.
The Turks were beaten soundly on the boards, with Australia posting a 44-30 advantage in the rebounding battle. But Turkey was able to negate it with strong outside shooting—the team shot 9-of-22 from the three-point arc.
Australia was led in scoring and on the glass by forward Aron Baynes' 15 points and seven rebounds, while guard Matthew Dellavedova added 13. But despite spreading the ball around with 15 team assists, the Australians couldn't overcome a 14-turnover performance.
Turkey will advance to face Lithuania in the quarterfinals.
Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press summed up the result:
Some of the most notable NBA names were rare contributors on Sunday. Omer Asik was among them, hitting his only shot from the field with four points and three rebounds as Turkey's starting center.
Dante Exum also made an anticipated appearance for Australia, but it was short-lived. The Utah Jazz rookie missed his only shot attempt of the night, grabbing two rebounds as his only real impact.
When Australia's run ended after the game, Andy Bailey of Bleacher Report saw the positives for Exum:
Australia controlled the tempo early on, jumping out to an 18-15 lead after the first quarter.
But Turkey had little trouble hanging around as the first half wore on, cutting the deficit to just one point at halftime.
The Australians began pulling away in the second half as much as any team would in this affair, escaping for a double-digit lead midway through the third when Baynes connected on a two-handed dunk.
But when the fourth quarter came around, the Turks continued to trim the deficit closer and closer off big performances from Preldzic and Guler.
Turkey was down, but never looked to be out when Australia was pulling away in the second half. Instead, the Turks continued executing what was working for them and got the tough baskets to make it a one-possession game down the stretch.
And when the time came, Preldzic hit the dagger with just seconds left to guarantee the win, as John Hobbs of TalkBasked noted:
With only five seconds left to muster a late winner, Australia wasn't able to draw up a buzzer-beater and saw its World Cup run end in heartbreaking fashion.
Alexander Chernykh of Sports.ru captured the anguish of Australian fans:
The result was especially noticeable after the controversy that came about during the end of the group stage. Australia had to deny tanking to avoid Team USA in its group-stage finale against Angola, per The Guardian, via the Australian Associated Press.
“We always, as Australians, compete the right way,” head coach Andrej Lemanis told Australian AP. “People will make up their own minds. There’s always going to be speculators. I can’t control what people think.”
In the end, Australia won't have to worry about facing Team USA at all after being eliminated by the Turks. After early aspirations of winning Group D, Australia ends play in the FIBA World Cup 3-3.
As for Turkey, its run in Spain will continue after impressing in Group C with three wins and two losses. They might not get it done in convincing fashion, but the Turks head into the quarterfinals with plenty of momentum as they gear up to play Lithuania.
