Manila, Philippines — Unlike the other match of the day, Turkey had little trouble disposing off its foe, dominating Slovenia all throughout the game en route to a 95-68 victory, thus arranging a do-or-die semifinals duel against Serbia in the 2010 FIBA-World Basketball Championships in Istanbul, Turkey.

Eryan Ilyasova, who plays for the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA, led the way for the Turkish squad with 19 points in 27 minutes on the floor.

“We played an excellent game. I think my players fought really hard,” said Bogdan Tanjevic, head coach of the host squad. “This was our strongest performance of the tournament. It’s historic for our team to make it to the semi-finals. They have never done it in this tournament before. We will see how we can do against Serbia. They play fantastic basketball.”

Turkey will now face Serbia in the semifinals this Saturday (Sunday in Manila), where the winner marches on to the finals of the FIBA tournament.

“I don’t think we started aggressively enough, especially on defense,” said Slovenian forward Bostjan Nachbar, who had a brief stint with the Houston Rockets and the New Jersey Nets in the NBA. “We didn’t have smart fouls. Turkey took advantage of that and made threes. They took a 10-15 point lead and from that point on, and it was hard to catch up with them. “

Slovenia struggled from the three-point area, going 8-of-23 the entire ball game, while the Turkish squad treated the home fans with a 57 percent (10-of-17) shooting clip from rainbow territory.

Shooting guard Sinan Guler chipped in 12 points for Turkey, while Omer Onan, Kerem Tunceri, and the Phoenix Suns’ newest acquisition Hedo Turkoglu all had 10 points.

Nachbar, on the other hand, was on the forefront of the Slovenian’s offense along with guard Sani Becirovic with 16 points apiece.

Slovenia will be facing Spain in the classification phase this Friday (Saturday in Manila).

The remaining quarterfinals matches will be pitting USA against Russia this Thursday (Friday in Manila), followed by the Lithuania-Argentina match afterwards.