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Turkey wins despite earthquake |
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Written by Sportal
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Thursday, 31 August 2006 10:28 |
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Turkey has won its 5th-8th place classification match at the FIBA World Championships with a hard-fought 95-84 overtime victory over Lithuania - which included an earthquake nearby.
Scores were locked at 75-75 at the end of an up-and-down regulation time, but Turkey, which had earlier been held to just four second-quarter points, outscored Lithuania 20-9 in the extra period.
At half-time, a 4.8-magnitude earthquake jolted the Tokyo region though there is currently no reported injuries or damage. There was almost no reaction from the people in the Super Arena at Saitama, 28km north of Tokyo either, according to CNN.
Ermal Kurtoglu was the star for Turkey, pouring in a game-high 24 points - which included 3-of-5 from the arc - while Ender Arslan racked up 18 points and dished out five assists.
For Lithuania, Darius Songaila top-scored with 17 points and made all nine of his free-throw attempts with Linas Kleiza scoring 14 - but hitting on only one of his five three-point attempts.
After jumping out to a 19-10 first-quarter lead, Turkey was held to four points in the second as its offence went south, while Lithuania found its range with 17 points in the term to take a three-point lead (27-23) at the half.
Lithuania looked to assert themselves further in the third and extended the lead to eight points heading into the final stanza before the Turks scored 35 points to send the game into overtime.
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