Tales From Turkey: Teodosic Returns, Serbia Win

30 August 2010

Milos Teodosic had a triumphant return from his two-game suspension by scoring seven points and handing out seven assists in the Blues' big win over Jordan on Monday at the FIBA World Championship.

Serbia, the silver-medal winners at last year's EuroBasket, went into the contest on the back of Sunday's double-overtime defeat to Germany.

They won 112-69 and now have two wins, including a tournament-opening triumph over Angola.

Teodosic was one of four players that had to serve FIBA-imposed bans as punishment for a brawl that erupted late in Serbia's friendly against Greece in Athens in the build-up to the FIBA World Championship.

Nenad Krstic served the third and final game of his ban and will be available for Serbia against Australia on Wednesday.

A Game To Remember

Germany's double overtime triumph against Serbia on Sunday in Kayseri, Turkey, was the longest of the FIBA World Championship so far.

It made headlines because of the upset, with Serbia having won the silver medal at last year's EuroBasket.

But it also turns out that the four points scored by each side in the first extra period made it the lowest scoring overtime in the last 56 years at the FIBA World Championship.

When it comes to low scoring, Russia also had a drought in their game against Turkey that coach David Blatt would like to forget.

In Ankara on Sunday, the Russians went 13 minutes and nine seconds without making a basket and only pouring in six points at the free-throw line.

Sasha Kaun eventually stopped the rot with 14 seconds to go in the second quarter but the damage was done as Turkey won, 65-56, to improve to 2-0.

"We played hard, good and smart but our second quarter was bad and it was hard to come back from that," Kaun said.

Greece Do It At The Charity Stripe

Greece failed to score a basket in the last 4:49 of the game against Puerto Rico on Sunday yet still took command.

With Jonas Kazlauskas' Greeks trailing 73-70, the Greeks scored their last 13 points at the free-throw line.

Puerto Rico were whistled for nine fouls and a technical in that stretch and Greece capitalized by winning 83-80 to improve to 2-0.

Lithuania, meanwhile, have established themselves as a team of big runs.

In their first game against New Zealand, the Baltic side took command with a 15-2 spurt.

They came from behind on Sunday against Canada with a 19-1 run and won a 70-68 thriller.

 


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