Saturday, January 17, 2009

TBBL 11/2008 - Galatasaray 64, Samsun 61



With the second round of play beginning in Turkey, Samsun (8-3) hoped to go on the road and deliver a defeat to traditional Turkish basketball power Galatasaray (7-3) on its own home court. It was a great game, but home field advantage proved decisive as Galatasaray held on for a three-point victory, 64-61. Samsun will now have to share second place with Beşiktaş and possibly Mersin, if Mersin beats Ceyhan today.

Galatasaray took a 9-2 lead to start the game but Adeola Olanewaju and Erlana Larkins turned on the defense and Samsun fought back to within two points at the end of the first, 21-19. Samsun managed to lead by one - 26-25 - at one point in the second quarter, but Galatasaray answered with a 6-0 run. Samsun managed another 31-31 tie but Galatasaray took a 38-34 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter, Galatasaray came out hot and managed to take a 12-point lead at one time, 48-36 - Samsun would be held to just eight points in the third quarter. Leading 54-44 in the fourth quarter, Samsun went on a 7-0 run to close within three, 54-51. Julia McBride would managed to score the basket that brought Samsun to a 56-56 tie, and Nihan Ahaz would score the next bucket to put Samsun up 58-56 late in the fourth quarter. A basket by Seimone Augustus tied the score at 58-58 and going down to the final minute Yasemin Horosan of Galatasaray scored again to give Galatasaray a 60-58 lead, and Samsun would never catch up.

Samsun beat Galatasaray in the shooting war 43 percent to 37 percent, but Galatasaray took more 3-point attempts. Galatasaray would beat Samsun on the offensive glass with 12 offensive rebounds to Samsun's seven. Furthermore, Samsun would send Galatasaray to the free throw line 17 times - Galatasary, however, would only hit 11 of those free throws, and Samsun would shoot 8-for-9 at the free throw line.

Turnovers killed Samsun. They turned the ball over 22 times, compared to Galatasaray's 14 times.

Sophia Young (San Antonio Silver Spurs) led all performers for Galatasaray with 16 points and seven rebounds. Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx) would score 16 points as well, but only two rebounds. The only other Galatasaray player in double figures was Işil Aben with 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Kiesha Brown (Los Angeles Sparks) would score only two points in eight minutes of play, but earn three rebounds.

Nihan Anaz would take the lead for Samsun, scoring 16 poitns on 7-of-11 shooting but turning the ball over five times. Julie McBride would score 14 points and Erlana Larkins would score eight points and 11 rebounds, but they couldn't keep their hands on the ball either - McBride turned the ball over five times and Larkins turned the ball over four times.

Alison Bales would score only one point in 14 minutes of play. Good news: she didn't turn the ball over. Bad news: her name was misspelled as "Alison Babes" in the boxscore.

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