Bojan Dubljevic (L) of Montenegro goes up for a basket during the group O match between Montenegro and Turkey at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 7, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhu Zheng)
DONGGUAN, China, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- A crazy 30-16 fourth quarter run helped Turkey take a come-from-behind victory to edge Montenegro 79-74 in Group O of the classification round, for its second victory in the 2019 FIBA World Cup here on Saturday.
Cedi Osman pocketed team-best 19 points for Turkey and Melih Mahmutoglu had 17 points. Nikola Vucevic had a game high 20 points and 7 rebounds for Montenegro.
Montenegro started its attack with a 9-0 run to lead the game 26-16 in the first quarter, and Turkey promoted its defence to narrow the gap to 5 points as the second quarter clock ran out.
Montenegro built up a 58-49 advantage after the third quarter, and a 16-3 run in the last quarter helped Turkey to turn the tables and lead by 1 point, but Montenegro made two free throws to take the lead again.
"We made a good performance in the first three quarters, but we made so many mistakes in last quarter, my mistakes, defense mistakes," Montenegro's coach Zvezdan Mitrovic said.
Osman's driving layup in the last minute played a key role as Turkey seized the win.
"It's not easy to win the game, we started without energy, but we made difference in last quarter, and we played very well in last five minutes," Turkey's coach Ufuk Sarica said.
Turkey beat Japan but lost to the Czech Republic and United States with a close score of 93-92 in the first round, while Montenegro lost to Brazil, Greece, and New Zealand.
Montenegro will play against Japan and Turkey will meet New Zealand on September 9.
"We have many young players, they lacked experience, but I believe we will finish it in a good way in next game," Mitrovic said.
"It's the first time for seven or eight young players in my team to play in World Cup. It's an improving team. We want to win again," Sarica said.
