ITA - Turkey beat Italy with strong three-point shooting

SEOUL (FIBA World Championship) - Italy crashed to a 69-64 defeat to Turkey on Saturday in a battle of teams that received wild cards to play in the FIBA World Championship.

The Italians were flying high after winning last weekend's Supercup in Berlin and they will be anxious to return to winning ways against Korea on Sunday.

"Our concentration is high, but given that we were playing in Berlin a week ago, I have to think that the time difference has created than more than just a few problems," said Italy coach Carlo Recalcati.

"And of course it's true, we can't miss so many free throws (Italy made 11 of 19) and our total percentage of three-pointers (five of 17 for 29.4%) didn't match what (Ibrahim) Kutluay and (Serkan) Erdogan managed together (nine of 16 for 56.25%).

"It's surely a combination of factors."

Erdogan finished with 20 points and Kutluay 19.

"From tomorrow, against Korea, we can understand if playing one more game would help us in Seoul," Recalcati said.

"The one with Korea, in fact, will be a real game. Korea is not a weak team. They have a good structure and the 21-year-old center (Ha Seung-Jin) is the key."

The Italians did lead in the game agains Turkey until the four quarter.

"In the second half, we lost something physically and found it difficult to recover defensively," Recalcati said.

"We allowed too many easy baskets and didn't finish things of when we had opportunities.

"In summary, we can't just give things away - free throws, three-pointers."

By PA Sport
Exclusively for FIBA