The favorites at EuroBasket 2017 are through to the quarterfinals as Spain withstood a strong test from Furkan Korkmaz and Turkey before ultimately pulling away for a 73-56 victory.
Korkmaz, who’s heading into his second season with the Philadelphia 76ers, came off the bench to score a game-high 20 points on 7-15 shooting. Turkey also got a quality outing from Cleveland Cavaliers’ wing Cedi Osman, who finished with eight points, four rebounds, and three assists in front of his home crowd at Sinan Erdem Arena in Istanbul.
But Spain, who not only boasts the most talent in the tournament but also the most experience, rallied after Turkey drew to within four with 9:03 left in the fourth quarter. Ricky Rubio scored 12 of his 15 points in the final frame and the Nuggets’ Juancho Hernangomez chipped in two threes in the fourth as well to ease Spain to victory.
Hernangomez, who came into today’s matchup as Spain’s second-leading scorer in the tournament behind Pau Gasol, finished with eight points and four rebounds. The 21-year-old found himself in foul trouble after only logging three minutes of action and had to spend most of the first half on the bench. Hernangomez played just 18 minutes versus Turkey, the least he’s played since Spain’s first game of EuroBasket against Montenegro.
In six games for Spain, Hernangomez is averaging 10.5 points on 43.5 percent shooting from the field and 35.3 percent from three, and 6.5 rebounds per game.
Elsewhere for Spain, Pau Gasol and Sergio Rodriguez each scored 11 points, while Marc Gasol added ten points and five rebounds.
Spain takes on Dennis Schroder and Germany in the EuroBasket quarterfinals on Tuesday.
