| 16.07.2004
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Nemanja Aleksandrov
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| Turkey became the first team from Group B to make it to the Quarter-Finals. In a replay of last year’s U16 European Championship final, Turkey got its revenge, and one hell of a revenge it was.
From the 2nd quarter there was only one team on court. After a thrilling game between Greece and Italy, this one offered a 4th quarter that was mostly garbage time. Turkey beat Serbia & Montenegro by 20 points, 76-56 and was honoured with the 3rd ticket for the Semi-finals.
It was the Serbia team which took first control of the game, and had a 8-2 lead in the early minutes. It took Turkey several minutes to get into the groove, and a 5-0 finish for the quarter sent the team for the first rest tied at 18-18.
After a big fight in the first quarter Turkey was ready to step up and rule the game. A big three pointer from Akyol made it a 30-22 game in favour of the Turks. Serbia came back with 4 points in a row, but once again the final touch was made by Turkey. Another 5-0 run before the buzzer set the half time score on 35-26, and gave the first signal of what was about to come in the 2nd half.
Hakan Demirel of Turkey opened the second half with a great bucket and after Kaya added a big three pointer Serbia & Montenegro found themselves down by 14, 52-38. The Serbs managed to cut it down to only 8 by the end of the 3rd quarter, 52-44, but the Turkish juniors were the kings of the paint, and didn’t allow their opponents any 2nd chances.
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Hakan Demirel
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| Two minutes into the last quarter and Aleksandrov decided to make it more interesting by cutting the margin to only 6, 53-47. But from that moment on there was only one team in the running:Turkey with another 5-0 run, and another 3 pointer by Kaya, opened another double-digit lead, 58-47, and maintained it until the closing minutes of the game. The Serbian players raised their hands, but Turkey was far from done. Only a three-pointer by Tripkovic, who had a very bad game, in the final second made it “only” a 20 point game win for Turkey.
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