Turkey edge past Croatia to secure second place in Group A - London Olympics Women Basketball Recap
The Turkish women basketball managed their way past a tough Croatian team on Sunday night here at the London Olympics.
Turkey ensured a 70-65victory over Croatia, much courtesy of their performance in the third quarter. After playing out the five games of the preliminary round, the Turkish team find themselves in second place, one stop below Group
A leaders USA, the only team to which they lost.
In an overall excellent team performance, the Turks had 4 players scoring in double figures with Kuanitra Hollingsworth lead the way. She shot 4 of 9 from the floor to muster 14 points. Esmeral Tuncluer and Bahar Caglar finished
off with 11 points each to their name while Nevriye Yilmaz recorded 10 points.
The main factor ensuring victory for the Turks was their ability to crash the boards. They dominated on the glass on both ends of the floor and out-rebounded Croatia 45-34 with 14 of them coming on the offensive end.
For the Croatians, Ana Lelas led the way with 14 points in 27 minutes of game time action. Jelena Ivezic and Andja Jelavic both scored 10 points for Croatia.
The Turkish team started the game behind Caglar who scored the first four points of the ball game but by the 6:09 mark, the scores were back at level pegging and Croatia went on to take the lead courtesy of their 7-0 run.
Croatia really found their groove in first frame and with the help of an 8-2 capping run; they raced away to a 24-18 lead after one. Turkey however crawled their way back into the game by starting the second period with a 13-3
run and went on to hold a minor 33-31 lead before heading into the interval. The Turks outscored their European counterparts 15-7 in the second period.
An 11-4 run to start the second half saw Turkey establish a strong foothold in the game. They managed to add 25 points to their tally in the period while holding Croatia to only 13 points, which meant that they took a 58-44 lead
going into the fourth.
However the Turkish camp was in for a bit of scare in the final period, which saw them only just manage their way to a victory. Croatia started the final quarter with a 10-0 run and with 2:38 to go till the final buzzer, they had
cut the lead down to only 2 points.
But the Turks were not letting their hard work go to waste and outscored the Croatians 6-1 in the ensuing passage to ensure a win.
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