Korkmaz closes out a thrilling Turkey victory

TBILISI (Georgia) - The game was up in the air until the last possession as it was Turkey who came out on top in a 72-68 win over Montenegro in their Group A opener.

Both teams battled their hearts out in a thrilling game. Even though Montenegro had a 40-34 lead in points scored in the paint, Turkey made the most of the production from their stars.

 Turning point: In a close game that saw the lead change hands 16 times, the last one was the most important one.  Montenegro held the lead in the last minutes, yet Furkan Korkmaz scored off a drive to the rim to make it 69-68 with 24 seconds left.

TCL Player of the Game: Shane Larkin collected 18 points and 7 assists. The point guard made 5 out of 6 three pointers as he created magic off the dribble.

 Stats don't lie: Turkey's players and coaches have made it clear that they need 40 minutes of good defense to achieve their FIBA EuroBasket 2022 goals. Even though members of the team weren't pleased with their execution tonight, they managed to keep Montenegro to 68 points.

Bottom line: Turkey is aiming of the medals, so for them this is only the first step in a long tournament. As for Montenegro, they prove that things might get quite interesting in the standings of Group A.

They said:

"I don't believe that we deserved to win the game. The only positive thing is that we start the tournament with a victory. Except the second quarter, we played terrible basketball." - Turkey coach Ergin Ataman

"We played good defense in the first half and were up by 10. We played terrible defense in the second half, but we scored the game winner. That's the story. We need to keep defending all game." - Sertac Sanli, Turkey

"Congratulations to Turkey for the victory. We played a great game against this kind of a team. Why we didn't win? Don't ask me. I don't know. " - Montenegro coach Bosko Radovic

"It was a really tough game for us. It's not easy to play against a team like Turkey. We need to be focused on the next game and forget about this. It will be the first of two very important games for us. " - Marko Simonovic, Montenegro

 
FIBA