ISTANBUL (Türkiye) – Türkiye bounced back from the disappointment of losing in the Semi-Finals to beat New Zealand 101-78 and claim third place at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2024 – the country’s second medal at the event following silver in 2016.
Türkiye were paced by Derin Can Ustun with 27 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, Cengiz Coskun had 16 points and Kaan Onat collected 16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
The host side pulled ahead by 15 points early in the second quarter and after New Zealand tried to get close went into the break ahead 48-33. The Oceania side could not threaten the home side the rest of the way.
“This third place is very important for us. These young guys went through some ups and downs, and we didn’t know if we would play well tonight. But third place is perfect for us,” said Türkiye head coach Hasan Ozmeric.
“We always wanted a medal since the beginning. The top three is special. We are so happy because we are in the top four in the world,” added Ustun.
New Zealand, who had Oscar Goodman score 25 points, were hoping to make history with their first-ever medal at a FIBA men’s event. In the end, they matched the senior Tall Blacks’ fourth place at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2002.
Other results
– Fifth place at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2024 went to Lithuania after a 96-82 win over Puerto Rico. Mantas Liutkevicius was the top scorer with 23 points to go with 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
– Spain will head home with a seventh-placed finish after defeating Canada 80-71. Ignacio Campoy collected 20 points and 13 rebounds.
– France will not be happy about ninth place but at least they won their final three games of the tournament, finishing the deal with an 83-65 win over Argentina. Christopher Ebunangombe had 16 points and 5 assists in the win.
– Germany won their final game of the tournament by defeating Egypt 88-65 to take 11th place. Ivan Crnjac led the Germans in scoring with 19 points and Fynn Lastring had 17 points.
– China picked up 13th place in the tournament with a 105-101 victory over Guinea with Boyuan Zhang scoring 32 points and Wenhao Fu tallying 24 points. Guinea’s Abdouramane Toure tied the U17 World Cup single game scoring record with 50 points in the loss.
– Australia finished their disappointing tournament on a high note with a 115-53 blowout of Philippines for 15th place. Dash Daniels scored 28 points and Joel Robinson neared a triple-double with 11 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists.
FIBA