Turkey pulls away in second half to defeat Bosnia and Herzegovina in World Cup qualifiers

Turkey was able to defeat Bosnia and Herzegovina 91-73 at home to record their first win of the 2027 FIBA World Cup qualifiers.

Turkey started off their qualifying campaign against Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a group that also contains Serbia and Switzerland, and the EuroBasket finalist was determined to get off to a strong start in their odyssey.

It is worth noting that most of Turkey’s team from the EuroBasket was able to make an appearance in this game (with the exception of some of the top stars like Alperen Sengun and Cedi Osman), whereas Bosnia and Herzegovina was without NBA center Jusuf Nurkic and Dubai guard Dzanan Musa, who make up most of the offensive creation of Dario Gjergja‘s side, as he made his Bosnia and Herzegovina national team debut.

It was a tight first half with Turkey only having a one-point lead (46-45) entering the break, as Bosnia and Herzegovina had excellent ball movement and getting easy layups at the basket. Turkey tried to compensate for that by being aggressive on the glass and shooting efficiently from the perimeter.

In the second half, Tarik Biberovic and Sehmuz Hazer came alive with their three point shooting and scoring, whereas Bosnia and Herzegovina could not answer through Xavier Castaneda and Ajdin Penava, and Ergin Ataman’s deeper bench made the difference late, as Bosnia and Herzegovina committed careless turnovers to let Turkey get on big runs, and seal their first win of the qualifying campaign.

Tarik Biberovic led all scorers with 20 and Sehmuz Hazer added 18 more. Amar Alibegovic led Bosnia and Herzegovina in scoring with 18, but didn’t have nearly the same level of support.

Turkey travels to Switzlerand to play their second game on November 30th, whereas Bosnia and Herzegovina host Serbia on the same day.