By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Coming from a defeat in Kaunas and playing without Russ Smith and Justin Dentmon, Galatasaray had its back on the wall. Still, when everything was over, the team of coach Ataman managed to get the 85-81 win over Dogus Darussafaka.
With Tibor Pleiss having by far his best game yet in Turkey, finishing the night with 22 points and 8 rebounds and the duo of Vladimir Micov (16 p.) and Emir Preldzic (17 p.) taking shots, a different version of Galatasaray was presented. On the other hand Alex Tyus, Austin Daye and Deon Thompson played limited minutes.
Will Clyburn scored 20 points for Darussafaka, which after a bad third quarter made a came back, but couldn’t finish the game the right way. After a close first half, the guests had a 38-37 and everything was open. Galatasaray thanks to a 24-10 parial score build a 13 points lead (61-48) and ended the third period with a 10 points advantage (65-55). However that was not the end of it.
After a three by Bradley Wanamaker, Darussafaka cut the lead to four (70-66) with seven minutes left in the game. The answer of Galatasaray was a 7-2 run (77-68) that pretty much decided the outcome. The guests trailed by five points (84-79) with 21 seconds left after a shot by James Anderson (15 p.), cut the lead even to three (84-81) thanks to Scottie Wilbekin (14 p.) just 6 seconds before the final buzzer, but Sinan Guler with 1/2 free throws sealed the win.