The gold medal game saw Turkey come into the game undefeated, 7-0, whilst Great Britain came in 6-1 with just a two-point loss to Japan in the group stage their only defeat.
The game was a repeat of the U22 European Championship gold medal game earlier this year, where Turkey were victorious, and it was them who came out with confidence and pushed out to an early nine-point advantage, as Great Britain showed signs of nerves.
Great Britain came back strong in the second quarter though, with their ball movement and patience around the key paying dividends as they moved in to the lead. Both teams exchanged baskets, but it was Turkey who tentatively held the lead by two-points at the end of the first half.
The third quarter saw Jack Perry and Ben Fox continue to score well for Great Britain, as their team started to control the game with Turkey struggling to find good shooting opportunities. Great Britain took the quarter 16 -10.
Turkey needed to find some rhythm in their offence as they entered the final quarter four points down, but the Great Britain defence was difficult to break down and denied Turkey any space to work. An 8-0 scoring run for Great Britain took them in to a commanding 12-point lead going in to the final five minutes. Turkey, with an uncharacteristically low shooting percentage, were able to narrow the gap by a point, but it was not enough as Great Britain held on for the victory, 54-43.
Fox notched 23 points for Great Britain, whilst Ahmet Efeturk achieved a double-double of 18 points and 16 rebounds for Turkey.
After the win, an ecstatic Fox said, “It was just team spirit. This team’s been together for two years now, we’ve trained every single day and we worked so hard for this. Turkey, great opponents, we missed out in the European Championship to them, so to come back… You have to give it to them, great opponents, I can’t believe we’ve won.”
