Turkey Pull Off Stunning Comeback In Bulgaria

Turkey came back from the dead and overturned an 18 point half-time deficit to squeeze out a critical 63-60 win in Bulgaria as they bounced from last weekend's mauling in Montenegro to get their EuroBasket Women Qualifying Round campaign back on track.

This was by no means an impressive performance, Turkey will simply be relieved to get the all important result having trailed by as many as twenty in the first half and with their hopes of qualification looking more distant, they turned things around in truly spectacular fashion after the break.

Things could certainly have been different with 22 turnovers for the visitors but Bulgaria were unable to punish Turkey and let them off the hook after throwing away their position of power with an utterly shocking third quarter.

Turkey did start cold and within a mere six minutes found themselves down by 10 points as a three-pointer by Jaklin Zlatanova made it 17-7. Incredibly the hosts would double that lead just before the end of the second quarter when another score by Zlatanova made it 43-23.

Looking down and out, Turkey needed some inspiration and they found it in the shape of Nevriye Yilmaz who dug her team out of a major hole with a stunning double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds although it was the defence in the third quarter that really made the difference.

Despite trailing by 20 points, Turkey emerged from the locker room with renewed vigour and on a mission - one that would be completed in double-quick time when they held the home team to just one score in the entire third period.

That helped change the entire reflection of the game and the crestfallen home team couldn not recover as Turkey not only completed their sensational fight back but then gained the upper hand in the closing stages to leave the hosts stunned.

Zlatanova finished with 18 points and seven rebounds for Bulgaria who now move to 2 and 3.

Quotes Bulgaria vs. Turkey

"The Turkish team played really well in the second half. They manage to win despite the big gap we created in the first half. The game can be separated in two - the first half we played better, the second was theirs. Turkey showed that they are really good team. It is a pity that we lost, especially after the good first half we played. We were very aggressive in defense, we scored a lot. It was one of the best halves of the Bulgarian national team in a few years. But the third quarter killed us. We were not so good in defense, so we had problems with the organization of the game. We scored just two points, so in this quarter we really lost the game. Our team is young, without any experience, so that was the key factor. Turkey showed that they have more experience in such tough situations. Now we have to look forward and to take the challenge to play well, and to qualify for the Additional Qualifying Round."