Pescara, Italy - Croatia took home the Mediterranean Games gold medal yesterday with an 82-70 win over Greece (discuss).

Team Croatia outscored Team Hellas 16-9 in the final quarter to secure their first ever Mediterranean gold medal.

Damir Rancic finished with 20 points, including five three pointers, and Ante Tomić contributed 13 points and 11 rebounds for Team Croatia,  Both Rancic and Tomić are in Croatia’s preliminary roster for EuroBasket.

Dimitrios Mavroeidis led Greece with 15 points.

Croatia has previously placed second in the Mediterranean Games, winning a silver medal in the 1993 Games losing to Italy in the finale.

Meanwhile in the third place game, Turkey didn’t need triple overtime to defeat Italy as they did ealier in the competition.  This time around, Turkey blasted the host nation Italy 88-71 to take home the bronze medal.

Team Turkey started out strong and nearly double-upped their opponents at halftime, 52-27.  Engin Atsür led Turkey with a game-high 25 points while Hakan Demirel, who played at Western Carolina in the NCAA, scored 20 points.

The Mediterranean games featured eight National teams Albania, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia, and Turkey.

Team Libya was supposed to be the ninth team, but withdrew from the tournament at the eleventh hour, forcing the organizers to quickly redraw the group B schedule.

Other mediterranean countries that chose not send a basketball team: Spain, Lebanon, France, Slovenia, Syria, and Egypt.

Links and Resources: Discuss: Mediterranean Basketball Games 2009 (Interbasket), Official Mediterranean Games Website (in English, not very helpful but it’s the official site nonetheless)