Turkey Take Top Slot In Group A

Nevriye Yilmaz and Turkey confirmed their dominance of Group A, coompleting a clean-sweep of the group on Monday

By Paul Nilsen

Turning Point: Turkey put their foot down and took over the contest with a 20-8 second period having been under-par in the first ten minutes.

Stats Don't Lie: Turkey had ten different scorers in the game and all twelve players gained court time which continued to highlight their depth and options at their disposal

Game Heroes: There were no big-time individual displays in a true team performance by Turkey. However, both Bahar Caglar and Tugba Palazaoglu were a very tidy five of eight from the field.

Unbeaten Turkey wrapped up their involvement in the first phase of EuroBasket Women 2013 with a comfortable 66-48 success against Slovak Republic to confirm their status as Group A winners and take two wins to the second round in Lille.

Preserving their perfect record, Coach Ceyhun Yildizoglu paid tribute to his players as they prepared to move to the second phase of the competition where further improvements are already being targeted.

He claimed, "I congratulate my players since right from the beginning of the game, they never lost their concentration and did a very good job.

"We had some struggle, but we will recover from those in Round 2 and will be prepared for this round."

Meanwhile, despite defeat, Slovak Republic were able to draw positives from the final day in Vannes, with their ongoing participation in the tournament confirmed before they took to the floor.

"Before this game we were waiting for the result of the Montenegro game and were very nervous Ukraine would win as we would have to have beaten Turkey," admitted point guard Gabriela Kubatova.

"But, because Ukraine lost, we were able to play with pleasure, although we missed too many easy shots which makes it difficult against a good team like Turkey.

Head coach Ivan Vojtko added, "It was not our day on offence, but I am pleased we almost kept Turkey to under 60 points which was good for us."

Slovak Republic had kept pace with their opponent during the opening quarter and with the scores locked at 12, had hope of continuing in the same vein for the remainder of the contest.

But, despite the best efforts of Anna Jurcenkova who almost corralled a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds, Slovak Republic were unable to prevent Turkey from shifting up a gear and imposing themselves defensively.

Quotes Turkey vs. Slovak Republic

Slovakia Player Gabriela Kubatova
"Before this game we were watching the Montenegro vs Ukraine game and we were very nervous because we knew that if Ukraine won, it would be very difficult to beat Turkey because they have a very good team. After Montenegro's game we told ourselves to play with pleasure, but it was hard, we missed some easy shots and it was very difficult."

Turkey Player Tugba Palazoglu
"We knew that we needed to play very good in the first round of the tournament. We have three wins because we worked really hard. We are very happy and I also want to congratulate the Slovak Republic."

Slovakia Head Coach Ivan Vojtko
"First of all, congratulations to our opponent. Today, our defence was right. Receiving only 66 points against Turkey is okay, we thought that if the game was played at 50 or 60 points, we could get the win, but on offence today it was not our day. We missed easy shots."

Turkey Head Coach Ceyhun Yildizoglu
"I want to congratulate my players. This was the last game of the first round and from the beginning, the players were very concentrated and they did a very good job. We have some problems we are going to recover in the second round; we are going to be ready."