Sunday, November 23, 2008

TBBL 5/2008: Fenerbahçe 58, Samsun 56



The second game between a Turkish team with an Atlanta Dream player on the team and an undefeated team took place today. It looked like Fenerbahçe (6-0) was going to cruise to its sixth victory until a disastrous third quarter forced both teams to fight it out at the end, with Fenerbahçe winning by one bucket over Samsun, 58-56.

The quarter by quarter score displays a Fenerbahçe team in firm control of the first half, leading 34-23 going into the haltime break. Fortunately for Samsun, Fenerbahçe would only score five points in the third quarter and Samsun would close to within two points, 39-37. The result would be that Fenerbahçe would have to fight Samsun neck and neck, managing to finish one basket ahead at the end.

Fenerbahçe won the shooting battle, 47 percent to 38 percent. Samsun stayed in the fight by destroying their opposition on the offensive boards, picking up 19 offensive rebounds to seven offensive rebounds for Fenerbahçe. Fenerbahçe also had four more turnovers than Samsun, giving Samsun extra opportunity to keep pace with Fenerbahçe.

For Fenerbahçe, Esmeral Tunçluer scored 21 points, four rebounds and five assists. Nevriye Yilmaz scored 15 points for Fenerbahçe.

They were the only players on Fenerbahçe to score in double digits. Matee Ajavon of the Houston Comets scored six points...but had twelve turnovers. Tammy Sutton-Brown - a center for the Indiana Fever - scored six points, and Kristen Newlin, a graduate of Stanford scored two points.

Nesibe Uzun led Samsun with 19 points. Erlana Larkins scored a double-double for Samsun with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Alison Bales scored seven points, but on 3 for 9 shooting. However, she picked up seven rebounds. Julie McBride scored three points and four assists.

After a lot of hitches with the TBBL website, it looks like pictures are finally showing up. Both Turkish game leagues should have pictures soon.

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2 comments:

Rebecca said...

Yep, that's the Matee Ajavon we know and… um, yeah. Know. Definitely know.

Lark's really turning it up in Turkey- glad to see her doing well.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see that Matee's WNBA skills transfer so readily to Turkish play. :D

Maybe you can answer this question, Rebecca - what happened? Was Ajavon this bad in college? Obviously not, or she never would have been drafted for the W. Were there flaws in her game then that were obvious, or did brand new flaws suddenly show up when playing against a better group of players?

If I recall correctly, Ajavon is ranked dead last in the WNBA in Wins Score - an obscure metric I put a lot of faith in.