By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Tarik Biberovic beat the buzzer with a turnaround jump shot to hand Turkey a 76 – 75 home win over Iceland in Day 2 of the 2025 EuroBasket Qualifiers.
This was just the fourth basket in the game for Biberovic after going 3-11 up until that moment.
The 23-year-old wing received the inbounds pass from Fenerbahce teammate Melih Mahmutoglu and beat Jon Axel Gudmundsson’s defense with a tough bucket.
Iceland had taken a 74 – 75 lead with three seconds to play thanks to a difficult layup by Gudmundsson in the face of Turkey center Sertac Sanli. Elvar Fridriksson had hit a triple to bring his team at a shooting distance after trailing 74 – 70 with 44 seconds left on the game clock in one of the several comeback efforts made throughout the game after trailing even by 11 points (50 – 39) in the third period.
Biberovic finished with 11 points while Sanli led Turkey overall with 20 points and 12 rebounds as his team bounced back after an away loss to Italy in the previous round. Ercan Osmani contributed 14 points plus five boards.
Martin Hermannsson had 14 points, six rebounds and four assists for Iceland, now 1-1.
“Of course, we didn’t play good basketball today, but almost the entire match was under our control,” noted the winning head coach Ergin Ataman, “We led almost the entire match, but we made incredible mistakes, especially in the last three minutes. We gave Iceland a chance to score quick points within 5-10 seconds, so we lost control. Basketball is such a game, sometimes you play very well and you lose. Sometimes you play badly, but with luck you win. Luck was on our side today, the importance of winning today was very important for us. We didn’t play well but somehow we found a way to win.
Our play on the last ball was to make Tarik make a ‘curl’ from Melih’s ‘back pick’ and then pass the pass to Tarik if it was open. After all, we planned to use the ball from the inside due to the opponent’s foul problem. Kenan chose to pass the ball to Tarik while putting the ball into play, and in my opinion, this choice was correct. Actually, Tarik could have gone in more clearly and scored, but he missed it for a moment, then luck helped him and he scored. They defended Tarik very well, especially in the last five minutes, and put their best defenders on him. That’s why our first alternative was Melih, but Tarik somehow hit the home run. Of course, do not say that we won the match today with the set drawn by Ergin Ataman at the last second. As coach, I am responsible for today’s bad game.”
Postgame press conference
Photo: FIBA