Germany Hand Turkey Second Loss

The 2005 silver medallists Germany remained perfect at the 2007 EuroBasket after a surprisingly dominating 79-49 victory over Turkey in Group C in Palma de Mallorca.

Dirk Nowitzki collected 24 points, six rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot while Ademola Okulaja was just one rebound from a second straight double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds as Germany looked much more confident than a night earlier.

"I felt we learned a lot from last night's game (an over-time win over the Czech Republic). We learned how we can play and cannot play. We didn't move the ball at all. But we did that tonight. And that's very important because it gets Dirk (Nowitzki) better shots and other people better shots as well," said German coach Dirk Bauermann.

"Everybody contributed in some way. We're really happy that we won and beat a very good team in Turkey. Winning the first two games is big for us, and we will now try to find a way to beat Lithuania."

Turkey coach Bogdan Tanjevic was clearly frustrated after another blowout defeat - a night after losing 86-69 to Lithuania on Monday.

"I can't explain what happened. We can't let our opponents play how they want to. If you want to play in Europe, you can't let teams like Lithuania and Germany shoot 50% from the floor and hold us to 30% shooting. I have no other explanation. We had 45 days and we had good tactical preparation as well. There was no sign that we would play like we did," said the Turkish boss.

Germany came out moving the ball much more effectively than they did against the Czechs and Okulaja opened the first half with two three-pointers as Germany pulled ahead 16-11 after one period.

Two Nowitzki free-throws pushed the lead to 25-16 early in the second period and Turkey hurt their cause by missing seven of 10 foul shots, including two straight back-to-back by Hidayet Turkoglu and Mehmet Okur.

Nowitzki scored Germany's final eight points and helped his team open a 15-point lead, 40-25, before going into the locker-room ahead 40-27.

Bauermann's side came out of the locker-room working hard on defense and hitting from long range. Demond Greene and Nowitzki hit three-pointers to open a 46-27 advantage and Turkey failed to score early in the second half until Turkoglu's three-pointer with 5:34 remaining in the third period.

Germany would eventually push the bulge to 23 points - on a long three-pointer by Jan Jagla for 58-35 - and they were ahead 58-39 going into the fourth quarter.

They scored the first eight points of the final frame, opened a 66-39 lead with six minutes left and Turkey would get no closer than 25 points the rest of the way while Germany led by as many as 33 points.

Turkoglu was Turkey's only player to score in double figures with 15 points as Germany held their opponents to 30% shooting (17-of-56) for the game.

Germany face off with Lithuania on Wednesday to see which team takes first place in Group C while Turkey play the Czech Republic in a battle of 0-2 teams with the winner moving on to the qualifying round.

source : eurobasket2007.org