Turkey fight back from -20 to set 2019 Final repeat with Spain

IZMIR (Turkey) - Spain and Turkey will compete for the FIBA U18 European Championship title on Sunday after both came through contrasting encounters to set up a repeat of the 2019 Final.

Defending champions Spain sent out another statement by cruising past Serbia in a 60-38 victory, while Turkey overturned a 20-point deficit in the first half on the way to beating Slovenia 79-64.

Slovenia came out firing as they looked to back up their shock win in the Quarter-Finals and they soon moved 28-13 ahead to silence the home crowd after 10 minutes. The gap peaked at 20 points, but Turkey rallied and managed to cut the deficit to four at half-time.

The turnaround was complete in the third quarter as the game had completely flipped on its head with Turkey soon out of sight and racing towards another Final appearance behind 20 points from Karahan Efeoglu and a further 19 from Berke Buyuktuncel.

Spain remain on course to complete a perfect tournament after a dominant performance at both ends of the floor in their Semi-Final encounter. The stifling defense restricted their opponents to just 13 points in the first half as Serbia were held to 21-percent shooting overall.

Izan Almansa produced a double-double of 21 points and 12 rebounds in the win with Eddy Pinedo also in double figures with 12 points.

The battle for the remaining ticket to the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2023 goes down to the final day. France responded to their shock Quarter-Final loss by beating Lithuania 80-60 in convincing fashion, while Italy overcame Israel in a 75-67 victory despite a 35-point haul from Noam Yaacov.

Meanwhile, in the fight for Division A survival, Croatia eased past Great Britain in an 85-52 victory as Andrija Jelavic posted 14 points and 16 rebounds with North Macedonia edging out Montenegro 65-62 as the two losing sides saw their relegation fate confirmed.

Elsewhere, Czech Republic defeated Germany 77-70 and Poland recorded a 70-63 win over Greece in the 9-12 Classification Games to round out the day's action.

FIBA