By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Pinar Karsiyaka beat Galatasaray 78-72 and improved to 7-5 in the Turkish league standings after 12 weeks, forcing their opponents to an 8-4 record.
Dajuan Summers led the winners with 23 points and 5 rebounds, Mateusz Ponitka had 15, J Covan Brown had 14, while Michael Green scored 13.
For Galatasaray Blake Schilb and Goksenin Koksal scored 15 points each (with 8 and 7 rebounds respectively), Deon Thompson added 12, Sinan Guler and Jon Diebler had 10, while Tibor Pleiss scored 8 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
In a highly competitive game from the beginning, Karsiyaka managed to have the lead at first, though was trailed for the rest of the game. The hosts were up 22-24 after the first 10 minutes, though at halftime, Ergin Ataman’s team led by 3, 45-42, with Thompson scoring 10 points for the visiting team. In the third quarter, the two teams were head to head, with the score being tied for most of it, yet Galatasaray managed to pull off an 5-point deficit (62-57) entering the final period. With 10 seconds to go, the visitors reduced the deficit to 2 points, yet the hosts were able to keep this short head and expand it until the end.
Notably, some Karsiyaka fans chanted offensive words towards Ergin Ataman, forcing both the refs and Galatasaray to go to the lockers for a little while before the end of the game.