Turkey feasts on France in world hoops championship

Turkey used a 21-4 run spanning the second and third quarters Sunday to eliminate France from the basketball world championships in Istanbul with a 95-77 win.

Phoenix Suns forward Hedo Turkoglu scored 20 points and Sinan Guler 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 shoot 35-for-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 scored 15.

Turkey plays Slovenia on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.Slovenia 87, Australia 58Jaka Lokovic scored 19 points and Slovenia hit 16 of 33 three-pointers to eliminate Australia in the round of 16.

Lokovic's corner three-pointer in the game's opening seconds sparked a 12-0 run and Slovenia never looked back. Primoz Brezec of the Milwaukee Bucks had 12 points and Goran Dragic had 10 points and eight assists for Slovenia.

Slovenia's guards cut into Australia's interior defense all game for easy looks or passes to wide-open perimeter shooters. "We did a poor job of getting to their three-point shooters," Australia coach Brett Brown said. "We pride ourselves for playing hard, tough defense. We don't have great athletes, we aren't very quick."

Australia didn't score until Joseph Ingles' layup 41/2 minutes into the game. Australia's 6-6 Brad Newley blocked 6-10 center Gaspar Vidmar's two-handed dunk from behind as time ran out in the first quarter with Slovenia leading 16-8.

"We chased the whole game, defensively, offensively from start to finish," Brown said.

Lokovic led Slovenia with 11 points in the first half as Slovenia hit 8 of 17 threes.

- AP