A National Basketball Team was eliminated in the last 16 rounds of the 2022 European Championship, losing to France 87-86 in the game whose normal time ended 77-77.
Starting the match well, France was ahead 7-0 in the 3rd minute. Finding his first basket at the beginning of the 5th minute with Alperen Şengün, the head coach of the National Team, Ergin Ataman, took a break when he was behind 13-4 in the 7th minute due to the messy appearance in the attack. While the crescent-star team was trying to dissolve the difference with the mobility brought by Şehmus Hazer, who entered the game, France went ahead 18-11 in the first period.
In the first part of the second period, the A National Team, which had difficulties in passing the opponent’s hard defense in the attacks and could not stop the opponent in the defense, fell back 31-15 in the 16th minute. The crescent-star team turned to outside shots in the face of their opponent’s hard field defense and started to quickly dissolve the gap with the baskets of Furkan Korkmaz, Buğrahan Tuncer and Cedi Osman.
Reducing the gap to 5 points (35-40) with Alperen Şengün’s basket in the last minute of the second period, the National Team finished behind 43-35 in the first half, when they blew a few controversial whistles against the referees.
France, who scored points with Albicy, Fournier and Tarpey in the first minutes of the second half, increased the lead to 11 points (38-49) in the 23rd minute. However, in the match where Buğrahan Tuncer made his mark with his excellent performance in the outside shots, the National Team, which did not give its opponent a chance to score for about 7 minutes and caught a 19-0 series, entered the last quarter with a 57-49 superiority.
In the first part of the last period, the National Team scored with Ercan Osmani and Sertaç Şanlı in the outside shots. Responding in the painted area, France evened the score in the 35th minute with the support of Cabbarot from behind the three-point line: 66-66. Continuing with mutual baskets and witnessing a great rivalry, the match was entered in the last minute with the superiority of France 73-72.
A National Team, with 44.9 seconds to go, went ahead 75-73 with the points scored by Furkan Korkmaz from the free throws, while France later returned empty-handed from his attack. After an unsportsmanlike foul by Cabbarot with 12.2 seconds to go, Cedi Osman could not hit in both free throws he used. When the National Team lost the ball used from the side in a short time, Gobert from France equalized the score with a basket with 2.5 seconds left: 77-77. The crescent-star team could not score in the last offense and the game went into overtime, the normal time of which was 77-77.
While the National Team scored with Furkan Korkmaz and Buğrahan Tuncer in the overtime division, France was ahead 87-84 in the last minute with the baskets of M’Baye, Fournier and Gobert. With the points scored by Furkan Korkmaz from the free throw, the National Team made the score 87-86 with 38.2 seconds remaining.
In France’s attack, Gobert failed to hit both free throws with 13.4 seconds left. However, in the last attack of the National Team, Furkan Korkmaz lost the ball and France won the contest 87-86 and advanced to the quarter-finals.
France will face the winner of the Serbia-Italy match in the quarter-finals.
