Turkish women take on US after beating Czech Republic

The Turkish women's national basketball team won its second match at the 2012 London Summer Olympics on Monday, winning 61-57 against the Czech Republic, as the team prepares to confront the US on Wednesday at 10:15 p.m. GMT (Thursday 12:15 a.m. Turkish time). Emine Tugba Palazoglu and Bahar Caglar each scored 11 points to help Turkey beat the Czech Republic on Monday. Turkey's "Fairies of the Net," as the team is popularly called back home, had a 13-point lead early in the third quarter which the Czechs whittled down to 49-45. However, Caglar's jumper and consecutive 3-pointers by Saziye Ivegin restored Turkey's double-digit advantage with just over four minutes left. Speaking to the media after the Czech game, Caglar said Turkey won by playing a good game against the Czechs. She added that the Turkish players knew it was an important game before the one against the US and said: "We believed in ourselves and it resulted in a clear win. We are now looking ahead to the following games, and we will try to finish our games with good placing on the table." Turkey's head coach Ceyhun Yildizoglu said Turkey now had its first win against the Czechs with Monday's game. "We started the game very well. We had some trouble in the fourth quarter, but we still played well to win the game. I believe it was a good game for our supporters to watch," he added. In addition, both the Czechs and the game's top scorer, Czech Jana Vesela, said Turkey played well and deserved to win. Turkey had kicked off their 2012 Olympic qualifying campaign on a winning note, routing Puerto Rico 65-53 and trouncing Japan 65-49 in matches played last week. The Fairies of the Net won their first game in the Olympics with a 72-50 victory against Angola on Saturday. In fact, Angola did not begin to score until the last three minutes in the first quarter after Turkey opened the contest with a 13-0 run. Meanwhile, the US outclassed African champions Angola with a score of 90-38 on Monday. The Americans have won their last 35 straight games in the Olympics and four consecutive gold medals, while Angola is looking for its first victory. Other matches on Wednesday include Canada vs. France; China vs. Angola; Australia vs. Brazil; Britain vs. Russia; and Croatia vs. the Czech Republic.