Turkey had a stranglehold on first place in their EuroBasket 2009 qualifying group before Saturday's game at Ukraine.

After an 86-64 win in Kiev, Bogdan Tanjevic's Turks have also have a stranglehold on a place in next year's Final Round in Poland.

A 14-4 run bridging the second and third quarters allowed Turkey to open a 51-38 lead and they stayed in command the rest of the way.

The result has left Turkey with four wins in as many qualifying games and at the top of Group C while dropping Ukraine to 1-3.

France and Belgium are both 1-2 and were to play later on Saturday.

Ukraine trailed in the fourth quarter of their home game against France one week ago but came back to win.

They followed that with a midweek defeat in Belgium and now have suffered a second loss on the bounce.

When Ukraine's Olexiy Onufriyev buried a three-pointer with 51 seconds to go in the second quarter, Turkey's lead was only 37-34.

Turkey's Oguz Savas made one of two at the line and Ender Arslan drilled a jumper for a 40-34 advantage at half-time.

Hedo Turkoglu capped the run with 6:34 left in the third quarter for the 51-38 advantage and Ukraine never recovered.

Kerem Gonlum, who had two dunks in the decisive spurt, had 17 points while Arslan finished with 13 and Turkoglu 11.

Turkey, who shot eight of 16 from three-point range and 25 of 44 (56.8%) inside the arc.

Rostyslav Kryvych had a game-high 22 points in defeat for Ukraine, who committed 23 turnovers.

They were six of 20 from long range and 13 of 30 inside the three-point line.

Valentyn Melnychuk, Ukraine coach:

"It hurts loosing this bad. We were hoping Artur Drozdov could help us tonight, but during a practice yesterday he injured his elbow again and we don't know how much time it will take for him to recover. Turkey are a very strong team. They play and practice at a totally different level daily."

Serhiy Lishchuk, Ukraine player:

"I would like to say thank you to all the fans that keep supporting us. We will continue to do all we can to improve our game. Tonight we were trying hard, all the guys were fighting."

Bogdan Tanjevic, Turkey coach:

"We prepared our game without paying too much attention to Ukraine. Of course we walked through their set plays a bit, but we needed to intensify our defense and that's what we did. We lost the rebound in the first half, but improved in the second. It was a very important game for us in terms of qualifying and we are very satisfied. If someone told me before the game we would win by a single point I would be happy. I was confident we can win but not by this margin. We are in a great shape; I know what our guys are capable of and there was never any fear even after Ukraine's good start that we could lose."

Sinan Guler, Turkey player:

"I think it was an important game for us because we talked about how we have never before beat Ukraine in Ukraine. We set a standard on defense early on and stayed at that standard throughout the game."