Turkey eliminates France with 95-77 victory at FIBA world basketball championships

Turkey eliminates France with 95-77 win at worlds

ISTANBUL — Turkey used a 21-4 run spanning the second and third quarters on Sunday to eliminate France from the basketball world championship with a 95-77 win.

Phoenix Suns forward Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points and Sinan Guler added 17 for Turkey, which played its first tournament game in the new Sinan Erdem Dome. A nearly capacity crowd of 15,000 — including 22 members of the Turkish national soccer team sitting courtside — watched the home team make shoot 35 of 55 from the field in the round of 16 game.

Boris Diaw of the Charlotte Bobcats led France with 21 points, and Nando de Colo added 15.

Turkey plays Slovenia on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.