In the match played at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Serbia, the National Team played with the starting five of “Metecan Birsen, Ercan Osmani, Tarık Biberovic, Ömer Faruk Yurtseven, Cedi Osman”.
Host Serbia, coached by Beşiktaş GAİN Head Coach Dusan Alimpijevic and playing in his 3rd match at the helm of the team, started to play with the first five of “Stefan Miljenovic, Nikola Kalinic, Ognjen Dobric, Nikola Tanaskovic, Luka Mitrovic”.
Starting the match with Cedi Osman’s 3 points from a free throw and defending effectively especially under the basket, the Crescent-Stars did not give their opponent a chance to score in the first four and a half minutes of the match. With 5.50 minutes left before the end of the first period, Tarık Biberovic’s 3-point field goal made the National Team take the difference to double digits with a score of 10-0. After this minute, the home team recovered offensively and reduced the difference to 1 point with 2.42 minutes left in the quarter: 11-12. Responding to their opponent with Cedi Osman’s 2 consecutive baskets and Onuralp Bitim’s 3-point field goal, the Nationals increased the difference to 9 points: 11-20. The Nationals finished the first period ahead 22-13 with Ercan’s basket under the basket in the last second.
Starting the second period with a basket by Dejan Davidovac, Serbia started to narrow the gap with consecutive baskets under the basket. Trying to be effective with outside shots and maintaining the difference, the National Team increased the difference to double digits again with Ercan Osmani’s basket in the last 2 minutes: 31-41. The Crescents, who scored points with their big men Ercan and Sertaç in the last minutes of the first half, went to the locker room with a 15-point lead, 46-31, with the point they scored from the foul earned by Şehmus.
While Serbia started the second half with Novak’s points from the free throw, the first point of the National Team came from Ömer Faruk Yurtseven with the follow-up dunk. The National Team, which managed to keep the difference at double digits in the first 8 minutes of the second half, could not prevent the difference from falling to single digits with a basket foul against the opponent with 1.38 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. In the 3rd quarter, the home team entered the last quarter trailing by 3 points with Stefan Miljenovic’s 3-point field goal: 54-57.
At the beginning of the 4th quarter, Mililer started with a 3-pointer by Tarık and then recovered with Ömer’s free throws: 54-61. The opposing team made a basket foul with 7.19 left in the game, reducing the difference to a single basket: 59-61. 2 minutes before the end of the match, whose last minutes witnessed great contention, Novak from the home team equalized the score: 70-70. Then Serbia managed to take the lead for the first time in the match with a 3-point basket: 73-72. Taking the lead with the basket scored by Tarık Biberovic with 1.09 minutes left in the match, the National Team won the match 82-78 and preserved their undefeated title in the group.
4TH MATCH AGAIN WITH SERBIA
The National Team will face Serbia in the 4th match of the FIBA 2027 Basketball World Cup Qualifiers Group C, this time in Istanbul. The match to be played at the Basketball Development Center on Monday, March 2nd will start at 21.00.
LOUNGE: Aleksandar Nikolic Hall
REFEREES: Yohan Rosso, Martins Kozlovsky, Zdenko Tomasovic
SERBIA: Kalinic 2, Davidovac 6, Mitrovic 7, Novak 6, Ristic 3, Miljenovic 10, Tanaskovic 5, Momirov 3, Markovic 19, Lakic, Dobric 17
Türkiye: Sertaç Şanlı 6, Cedi Osman 16, Metecan Birsen, Berk Uğurlu 6, Tarık Biberovic 22, Onuralp Bitim 3, Yiğitcan Saybir, Ercan Osmani 8, Şehmus Hazer 7, Ömer Yurtseven 14
1ST PERIOD: 13-22
CIRCUIT: 31-46
3RD PERIOD: 54-77
5 FOUL: Nicola Kalinic, Dejan Davidovac (Serbia)
