Naturalized guard goes 0-of-8 as poor shooting dooms Turkey

Ali Muhammed (Bobby Dixon) finished 0-of-8 from the field. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Turkey rued its bad offensive showing in its opening day loss to Canada in the Fiba Olympic qualifying tournament.

After shooting just 36% from the field, including a 6-of-26 clip from the three-point area, with 15 missed free throws, they had every reason to.

“I think we did not play good on the offensive side of the game. We played good defense but offensively, we were not able to capitalize on our strengths,” said Sinan Guler, who led Turkey with 14 points in a 77-69 loss Tuesday.

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“We played very bad offense. We couldn’t find our offense, Some of our key players had a bad game for us,” said Turkey head coach Ergin Ataman. “We missed 15 free throws.”

Ataman called out his naturalized point guard Bobby Dixon, whose Turkish name is Ali Muhammed, for misfiring on all of his eight attempts and scored just one point with three turnovers.

“I’ve known Bobby Dixon for the past four, five years in Turkey and I think this is the worst game of his career and I don’t think he will repeat this game,” Ataman said, pertaining to Muhammed.

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Turkey has a one-day break before going up against Senegal in a game that will likely decide a spot in the semifinals.

Ataman is confident heading into that crucial tussle with Senegal.

“In our game against Senegal, I think we will play our regular game.”