Turkiye Beats Czechia 99-84 to Claim Third Place at Turkish Airlines Supercup

Turkiye closed out the Turkish Airlines Supercup with a third-place finish, pulling away from Czechia with a dominant third quarter to win 99-84 at Barclays Arena on Saturday, while Czechia finishes the tournament in fourth.
The first half was tightly contested throughout. R. Richard Balint (192-PG-2002, agency: Octagon Europe) kept Czechia within striking distance in the opening quarter with two big three-pointers and two more baskets, but Turkiye still led 28-25 after ten minutes. Patrick Samoura (196-G/F-2000, college: UT Tyler) gave Czechia its first lead of the game with a three-pointer in the 12th minute, 32-30, and the second quarter developed into a genuine back-and-forth, with both sides repeatedly answering each other. Jan Zidek (206-F-1999, college: Chattanooga) helped Czechia pull slightly ahead a three-point play made it 44-38, and another basket extended it to 46-40 before Turkiye tied the game at 49-49 in the 18th minute and retook the lead. Turkish fans made themselves heard as the half wound down, and Turkiye carried a narrow 54-52 edge into the break.
Turkiye asserted control immediately out of the locker room, pulling ahead by double digits for the first time in the 24th minute at 67-56. Czechia suffered the same fate it had the day before, enduring a weak third quarter that let Turkiye stretch the lead to 83-65 by the end of the period. Czechia rallied to win the fourth quarter, but it did nothing to change the outcome, and Turkiye closed out the 99-84 win to secure third place.
Omer Yurtseven (213-C-1998, college: Georgetown) led all scorers with 21 points on a near-perfect 9-of-11 shooting, and Malachi Flynn (185-PG-1998, college: SDSU) added 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including three made threes. Ercan Osmani (213-F/C-1998) contributed 11 points, Adem Bona (208-F-2003, college: UCLA) scored 10, and Cedi Osman (203-SF-1995) added 10 of his own as Turkiye's bench outscored Czechia's reserves 59-31. For Czechia, Richard Balint finished with 15 points, Zidek led all scorers on his team with 16, and Martin Svoboda (201-C-2001) added 12 points, but Czechia's 21 turnovers against Turkiye's pressure and a rough shooting stretch in the third quarter proved too costly to overcome.