Game Summary

Turning point: With Turkey down by two in the closing seconds, Ender Arslan drove to the basket and decided to pass off - when he had an open lay-up - to Engin Atsur, who went for the win instead of a tie with a three-point attempt from the corner, which he missed.

Hero: With Bostjan Nachbar plagued by foul trouble, Goran Jagodnik came off the bench and hit some timely baskets in the last two quarters to hold off Turkey's furious charge.

Stats: Slovenia made 13 of 31 three-point attempts while Turkey were just 5 of 20.

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Slovenia ended Turkey's unbeaten run at the EuroBasket with a thrilling 69-67 triumph on Wednesday night at the Arena Lodz to clinch first place in Group F.

The win has thrown the Slovenians into a Quarter-Final clash with Croatia while Turkey now must face Greece with both games to be played on Friday.

Ersan Ilyasova once again led the way for Turkey with 16 points.

"This is a very big win for us," Slovenia forward Bostjan Nachbar said.

"It was an extremely tough game but to beat a team that had not lost in the tournament is a great result for us it's more important to go into the elimination round on the back of a win."

Jure Zdovc's team, whose only defeat in this competition was an overtime loss to Spain in Group C, led Turkey by as many as 19 points in the first half but ended up going to the break with a 39-32 advantage.

Turkey clawed their way back and took their only lead of the game at 48-47 on a fast-break lay-up by Semih Erden with 3:30 to go in the third quarter, only for Slovenia to go back on top at 57-52 with 10 minutes remaining.

Leading 60-58, Slovenia appeared to be in good shape after scoring eight of the game's next 12 points for a 68-62 advantage with 50 seconds remaining.

Following two Omer Asik free-throws for Turkey, though, Uros Slokar missed a jumper for Slovenia and Samo Udrih fouled Ender Arslan while the Turk was attempting a three-pointer with 10 seconds left.

Arslan made all three to cut the deficit to 68-67.

After Turkey quickly fouled Udrih and he made just one of two free-throws, Bogdan Tanjevic called a timeout to discuss the end-of-game strategy.

When play resumed, Arslan received the inbounds pass in his own half and then raced up the floor, penetrated and whipped the ball out to a wide-open Engin Atsur in the corner.

Atsur missed the potential game-winning three, though, as Slovenia survived.

"I'm generally very satisfied with the team," Tanjevic said.

"We had a shot to win the game. Sometimes it goes in, other times it doesn't. Now we will face Greece, a team that has a lot of experience in Championships. But then again, we could have faced Croatia - a side that has 10 or 11 quality players.

"I believe that my team can continue to play well. The important thing is to recover our energy."

Zdovc was happy, but already concentrating on what lies ahead.

"The reason why we won was rebounding," Zdovc said.

"But we have no time to enjoy this win because my players are already focused on our next game."

Slovenia out-rebounded Turkey 35-32.

Ilyasova and Nachbar each finished with 16 points to lead all scorers.

Turkey hurt their own cause by making only 14 of their 21 free-throws while Slovenia were six of 11.

Slovenia prevailed over Turkey despite being without three injured players.

Goran Dragic (knee) and Domen Lorbek (neck) sat out the game and watched from the bench with captain Matjaz Smodis (back) still unavailable.

"We had three players out today but this team will keep on fighting and keep on winning, even if we have only five players left," Nachbar said.

"In two days, we will show up ready to play against Croatia."

Turkey will put their perfect mark (4-0) on the line when they face their closest challengers Slovenia (3-1) in the final game of EuroBasket 2009 Qualifying Round on Wednesday.

A win for Bogdan Tanjevic's men will see them top Group F while a loss would drop them into second place behind Slovenia, based on the head-to head.

A defeat for Jure Zdovc's side could spell trouble as they could finish second or third, depending on the results from the day's earlier games (Lithuania v Serbia and Poland v Spain).

One thing is for sure: both teams are through to the last eight. In what order they finish the group and who they then face in the quarter-finals in Katowice will be known on Wednesday night.

The Turks were made to work overtime in order to beat Serbia, 69-64, in a very gritty game. Both teams shot relatively poorly - 38 and 31 percent respectively - and the Serbs made history as they failed to score in the extra period.

A great play - which they improvised rather than use the one drawn up by Tanjevic during the timeout - in the closing seconds of regulation gave Turkey a shot at winning it. With 3.4 seconds remaining, they inbounded the ball to Kerem Tunceri who drove down the right hand side of the lane and flipped up a shot at the basket. It was off but Hidayet Turkoglu tipped the ball in. The referees ruled it to have been after the buzzer.

With Turkoglu struggling, Ersan Ilyasova stepped up his play and finished with game-highs of 22 points and 11 rebounds. However, Turkey will have to improve their free-throw shooting drastically after missing 13 of 31 attempts.

Meanwhile, Slovenia got off to a slow start against Poland but eventually saw their shots starting to fall - while the hosts' didn't - and they pulled away after the break to turn a 31-29 half-time score into a 76-60 win.

Erazem Lorbek led the way with an impressive all-around game of 20 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Head-to-head: Slovenia have beaten Turkey in three of their four meetings to date. The Turks lost 66-51 in their last game in the Qualifying Round at EuroBasket 2007 in Madrid.

Last time out: Turkey needed overtime to hold off Serbia 69-64 and maintain their unbeaten record (4-0) while Slovenia cruised past hosts Poland 76-60 to improve to 3-1.

Key match-up: There are some fairly obvious marquee battles (Hidayet Turkoglu v Bostjan Nachbar and Ersan Ilyasova v Erazem Lorbek) but it will be interesting to see Ender Arslan go up against Jaka Lakovic. The Turk is a speedster at both ends of the court and maybe that quality is what is needed to slow down the Slovenian who has been doing a great job hitting three-pointers and creating for his team-mates.

X-factor:  Can Turkoglu put an end to his shooting slump? Turkey have remained unbeaten despite the fact that the Toronto Raptors forward has been in something of a scoring funk over the past two games. He had just two points (made one of his five shot attempts) against Spain and four against Serbia (missed 15 of 16 field goals). The bright side is that his poor shooting hasn't prevented him from doing the little things well as he has been piling up rebounds, assists and steals. Still, Turkey do need him to get his stroke back, if not on Wednesday then at least for the quarter-finals.

Stats: 1-10 - That was Omar Asik's free-throw performance against Serbia, the biggest reason why Turkey were only 18 of 31 from the charity stripe. The center has made only five of 24 attempts from the foul line so far in the tournament.

Sounding-off: "This game is for first place in the group so we expect it to be very tough. Turkey have the best record, no one has beaten them yet. But just like we have done in every game until now, we will play as if it's our last game. Maybe even more in this one." - Slovenia's Primoz Brezec.