Turkey wins a thriller against Czech Republic – Olympics Women Basketball Recap
The Turkish women basketball team continued their winning ways at the 2012 London Olympics after they defeated the Czech Republic 61-57 in a thrilling game.
The Turkish team was able to withstand a late surge from the Czech side, which outscored them in the final two quarters of the game. However, the 12 point lead that Turkey had assembled by the half time break came in handy.
Turkey launched an offensive assault on the Czech side early in the game, going on a 9-0 run to take a 13-5 lead. The Czech side missed 8 consecutive field goal attempts during the run, which lasted for more than 5 minutes. A three pointer by Eva Viteckova in the final two minutes brought the lead down to 13-8, and neither team was able to score a field goal in the final 1:55 of the quarter.
Leading by 21-17 in the second period, the Turks raced to a 10-2 run, opening the gap between the two teams, 31-19. The Czechs once again went scoreless for 4 minutes and 30 seconds, showing inconsistency in their game and allowing Turkey to assemble a lead. They went into halftime trailing the Turkish side by 12, 21-33.
Turkey did a good job of adding on to their lead early in the 3rd period, but the Czech women came back fighting. Trailing by 24-37, the Czechs went on a 10-1 run, reducing the deficit to 34-38 with 5:21 to play in the period.
Turkey were able to hang on to a 45-39 lead heading into the final period after Kuanitra Hollingsworth scored on both free throw attempts in the final minute.
The turning point for Turkey came with 6 minutes to play in the game when Bahar Caglar scored a two point shot and Saziye Ivegin followed with a three pointer to give Turkey a 54-45 lead with 5:17 left to play.
Czechs scored six straight points to reduce the deficit to 57-53, refusing to go down without a fight. However, Turkey showed nerves of steel in the end to hold on to the lead and finish with a 61-57 victory.
Nevriye Yilmaz was outstanding for the Turkish side, scoring 11 points and grabbing 13 rebounds for the night. Bahar Caglar and Tugba Palazoglu both added 11 points each.
Jana Vesela had a game high 19 points for the Czech Republic and Eva Viteckova finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds.
The Czech side shot better from the field as compared to Turkey, going 40.4% for the night. They were however only 4 of 18 from the three point line, with Turkey going 6 of 14 from the same distance.
At 12, Turkey had nine fewer turnovers than the Czech side, which proved to be the difference maker in the end. With the loss, the Czech Republic are now placed 4th in group A.
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