The last game in Borås was also the best. After a nerve-wrecking last quarter, Serbia & Montenegro were able to win against Turkey by 4 points, 80-76.
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Marko Jaric had 18 points for Serbia & Montenegro
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Turkey was in the lead with four minutes to go and only trailing by one with one minute left. Some crucial mistakes in the last seconds gave the victory to Serbia & Montenegro.
Everything was set for and intense and tough battle in Borås tonight. Two teams, Turkey and Serbia & Montenegro, which both had a lot to prove. Serbia & Montenegro as current world champions and Turkey as the silver medallists in the 2001 European Championships. Fans from both sides expected their team to win.
As expected it started out as a close game. Both teams played very good defense and gave the shooters big problems. Mehmet Okur in the Turkish team made the first five points for his team. Predrag Stojakovic, with 65 points so far in the tournament, hurt his ankle seven minutes in to the first quarter while blocking a shot and needed help off the court.
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Hidayet Türkoglu (TUR)
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After two quarters Turkey seemed to control the game. Still they were only ahead by four points, bad shooting was one of the reasons for the narrow gap. Serbia & Montenegro's important player Predrag Stojakovic came back to the game two minutes into the second quarter. But he was rather invisible and had only scored 6 points before the intermission.
For Stojakovic who has a scoring average of 21.7 points, that's bad news not only for the player himself but also for the team. Thanks to Marko Jaric, the loss wasn't that big. Serbia & Montenegro managed to stay four points behind and the score at the intermission was 38-34 for the Turks.
So far the lead had changed five times and it continued to change. Turkey had a 9 point lead at the most but five minutes into the third quarter Serbia & Montenegro was up by one point. The two teams then followed each other.
Serbia & Montenegro started the last quarter with a one point lead, 53-52, and it was a wide open game. Serbia & Montenegro continued to stay in the lead for the first five minutes but when Turkey's Kerem Tunceri made a 3-pointer the lead changed again. Serbia & Montenegro came back and built a 7 point lead but with 51 seconds left, Turkey was only one point behind.
The Turks tried desperately to find the basket, but too stressed they failed in passing twice. And fouling didn't help. Serbia & Montenegro's players showed no nerves when they made all the last nine free throws and secured the victory, 80-76.
Serbia & Montenegro face Lithuania in the second quarter final on Wednesday.
