Turkey beats Spain to win U-20 European title in basketball

Turkish men’s basketball team has won the FIBA U-20 European Championship with a 65-57 victory over Spain on July 20.

Cedi Osman scored 20 points and was subsequently named in the all-tournament team, as Turkey edged out Spain in the final minute of the gold medal game to be crowned champions for the first time in the history of the competition.

Talat Altunbey was the only other player to score in double figures in Turkey, who had seen contributions from 10 of its 12 players. Metin Türen had eight points and seven rebounds, while Kartal Özmızrak had three points and eight rebounds.

Spain assumed the initiative during the opening exchanges of the final, by controlling the battle on the glass to score off offensive rebounds and keep a lid on Turkey’s favourite transition game.

While the Spanish appeared pluralistic on offence, Osman was the only Turkish player to connect with the basket and scored all of his team’s first nine points. It was not a scenario that most had envisaged for this final, as Turkey had entered the title game with the most productive offence in the tournament.

Paradoxically, the order of things changed once Juan Hernangomez drilled a triple from the corner in the opening seconds of the second quarter to give Spain their biggest lead, 21-14.

Özmızrak replied swiftly with a triple of his own with 9:22 remaining to the half-time break and sparked a 10-0 run that would see Turkey grab a 24-21 lead on a free throw by Metecan Bircan, less than three minutes later.

Free flow

Turkey reached the interval leading 35-28 and seemed to have recovered at least some of the elements of their free-flowing game.

However Oriol Pauli, the man who had sent...