Game Summary

Turning point: France made a furious comeback after the break, going on a 21-9 run to edge in front 53-52 on Tony Parker's banked shot with 4:05 left in the third quarter. It was their first lead since the opening minutes of the game. With the momentum firmly on their side as they started the final frame with a 61-59 advantage, Les Bleus would add to it the rest of the way.

Hero: Tony Parker. He bounced back in impressive fashion after a sub-par performance against Spain in Thursday's quarter-final to lead the way for Vincent Collet's side. The San Antonio Spurs guard led France's furious comeback and made sure to get his team-mates involved as his 10 assists indicate.

Stats: It all came down to turnovers. France had eight in the opening quarter as they fell behind 26-12 and four more in the second period for a 43-32 deficit at the half. Turkey, who turned the ball over just three times in the first two quarters, gave it away eight times in the pivotal third quarter.  The Turks finished with 16 turnovers, one more than France.

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France came back from a 19 point first-half deficit to beat Turkey 80-68 and clinch their place in next year's World Championship in the first 5^th-8^th place game in Katowice.

Tony Parker had game-highs of 28 points and 10 assists as he bounced back from a sub-par performance against Spain to lead the way for Les Bleus .

Afterwards, Nicolas Batum was satisfied that his team accomplished what they set out to do.

"Our goal was to make it to the World Championship and we have done just that," said the Portland Trailblazers forward.

"We played a bad first half but we showed more heart and determination after the break. I think we have a talented team with young players and this tournament has allowed us to get experience to the World Championship."

"We did fear that the game could get out of our hands in the first half, but we managed to hit big threes and get a good run going in the third quarter."

Trailing 43-32 at the break, France went on a 21-9 run to edge in front 53-52 on Parker's banked shot with 4:05 left in the third quarter. That gave them their first lead since the opening minutes of the game.

Batum scored Les Bleus' first five points after the intermission and they were soon within one, 52-51, thanks to some patient ball movement which resulted in open three-pointers for Antoine Diot and Boris Diaw.

Parker then edged his side in front with his basket and they were up 59-55 when he fed Florent Pietrus for a corner three. They would not trail the rest of the way.

Turkey made four free-throws courtesy of Kerem Tunceri and Hidayet Turkoglu to tie the game at 59 with 1:07 left in the period before Parker hit a pair of foul shots to put France back in front.

The Turks committed three turnovers inside the last minute of the third quarter - they had nine in that frame alone - and France rode their momentum, using a 17-0 run to go up 76-59 in the final quarter.

Bogdan Tanjevic's men went without a single point for 7:06 between Turkoglu's free-throw late in the third period and Oguz Savas' bucket with 4:20 left to play for a 76-61 deficit.

France head coach Vincent Collet admitted his team got off to a very slow start.

"We didn't have the energy early on. It was like we played yesterday and not Turkey. In the second quarter, we started to step up on defense," he said.

"The second half was much better in terms of controlling the ball. We didn't lose the ball but we made them lose the ball. We shot better in the end too. You cannot be good in this game if you let the other team shoot so much better than you."

Early on, France were within four, 14-10, on a Parker free-throw but Turkey then went on a 10-0 run.

Les Bleus turned the ball over seven times in the first quarter and went without a single point for 4:16, between Parker's free-throw and Pietrus' tip-in with 47 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 24-12.

Omer Anon buried a wing three to give Turkey their first double-digit lead at 20-10 and Turkoglu drove to the basket for a 26-12 lead to end the period.

France continued to struggle early in the second period,  giving the ball away on three consecutive possessions and falling behind 33-14 after Semih Erden made a pair of free-throws with 6:27 left in the half.

Collet's men eventually gave their fans a reason to cheer, as Diot and Parker combined for 11 unanswered points to cut the deficit to 39-32 with 52 seconds to go in the period.

But Turkey closed out the half scoring the last four points, Engin Atsur and Omer Asik teaming up for the alley-oop and the center getting a tip-in just before the buzzer for a 43-32 lead at the break.

France had 12 turnovers by half-time, one more than they did at the same stage of the game against Spain. They gave the ball away only six times in the second half.

And it was the other way around for Turkey, who finished with 16 turnovers, 13 of them after the break.

Tanjevic gave credit to France but conceded his team didn't play full out.

"France are one of the best teams in the competition. Our team played for maybe 15 minutes. And then we gave up our energy to fight until the end," he said.

There was some bad news for France as they will be without Diaw for the 5^th-6^th place on Sunday after he sprained his ankle in the third quarter and did not return.

Vincent Collet (France Coach):

"We are glad to win this game. Qualification to the World Championship in Turkey was our goal from the beginning, but of course we hoped to advance further. We started today really bad - lacking energy. We stepped up later with our defense and we were much more aggressive, which helped us change this game."

Florent Pietrus (France):

"We wanted to win this game and I have to congratulate my teammates for doing it. We were minus 19, but we still did it and advanced to Turkey next year. We did a great job today, not giving up."

Bogdan Tanjevic (Turkey Coach):

"We had excellent 15-20 minutes, but my players lost all energy and France took over the game. Today we were playing without two key players - Ilyasova and Arslan, we also had a very tough game last night against Greece."

Kerem Tunceri (Turkey):

"We had to play two very good teams in less than 24 hours. We were great for 15 minutes, but our condition was bad later during the game. Also France was making shots against our zone defense. We are sorry to lose, because every game we play to win and we always try to keep fighting."

France will look to bounce back from their lopsided Quarter-Final defeat against Spain and take a step towards securing a place in next year's World Championship when they face Turkey in the first of Saturday's 5^th-8^th place games.

After winning their first six games, Les Bleus lost to Spain 86-66 on Thursday, but are well aware there is still something to play for in their remaining two games, having learned that the hard way over the past two years.

At EuroBasket 2007, Russia edged out France 75-71 in their quarter-final clash and the latter then lost their games against Croatia and Slovenia to finish eighth, thereby missing out on a berth for last year's pre-Olympic tournament.

As a result of those two defeats, the French had to go through a long and gruelling qualifying process in order to earn a place for this tournament.

They failed to win their berth at the first time of asking, finishing second in Group B of last year's Qualifying Round with a 3-3 record - including home and away defeats against Turkey - before eventually punching their ticket to Poland following their win in last month's Additional Qualifying round.

Therefore, Vincent Collet's men will not take Saturday's game lightly, and now know all too well that it holds more meaning than just the final standings of this tournament.

As hosts of the World Championship, Turkey have their place assured for next summer, but they will want to finish their campaign in Poland on a positive note in order to let their fans know they will be a side to be reckoned in 2010.

Bogdan Tanjevic's side suffered their second overtime defeat in a row on Friday, falling 76-74 against Greece in a thrilling game.

Hidayet Turkoglu led a fourth quarter charge that saw Turkey go up by six, 63-57, on the captain's three-pointer with 2:23 left to play, but Greece used a 7-0 run to edge back in front 65-63 on Nikolaos Zisis' made free-throw with 18 seconds remaining in regulation. The Turks sent the game to overtime on Ender Arslan's lay-up that beat the buzzer.

The Greeks scored 10 of the first 14 points for a 75-69 advantage on Vasileios' three-pointer and they just about held. Turkoglu missed his chance to tie and, after Zisis hit another foul shot, Arslan missed a three-pointer that could have won it.

Turkey will have a tough time getting over the fact that they were agonisingly close to reaching their first EuroBasket semi-final since 2001, but must put that aside in order to focus on the task at hand.

Head-to-head: France lead the series 11-4, but Turkey have beaten them the last two times, both in last September's Qualifying Round for this tournament. The Turks won at home 77-65 and, with their own place in this tournament booked, then proceeded to beat Les Bleus 80-78 in Limoges, forcing them to go through the Additional Qualifying Round.

Last time out: France went down 86-66 against Spain, suffering their first defeat of the tournament and crashing out in the last eight. Turkey came up short against Greece, losing 76-74 after overtime and failing to reach the semi-finals for the fourth time in a row.

Key match-up: Boris Diaw v Hidayet Turkoglu. These two versatile and athletic players are actually point forwards and the offense often runs through them. Whichever one does the best job of involving his team-mates early on might just hold the key to victory.

X-factor: Can Tony Parker bounce back from his worst performance of the tournament? The San Antonio Spurs star guard was held to just six points against Spain and made just one field goal.

Stats: 11 - The number of turnovers France committed in the first half alone of their loss against Spain (they finished with 17 in all). Eleven is also the number of times Turkey gave the ball away against Greece - in a game that went to overtime.

Sounding-off: "We have to learn from what happened two years ago (at EuroBasket 2007) and the mistakes we made back then. We can't win a medal but we can qualify for the World Championship." - France forward Boris Diaw.