By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Hunting for Group D’s second seed, Bahcesehir Koleji outlasted Igokea m:tel, 77-72, Wednesday evening.
Jamar Smith and Jerry Boutsiele shared a team-high 14 points in the Basketball Champions League Regular Season Gameday 6 contest. Experienced guard Muhammed Baygul followed with 13 points. Yigit Arslan fired 12 points, including nine in the fourth quarter. Both Langston Hall and Berkay Candan were sidelined.
Following 16 lead changes, the team coached by Erhan Ernak controlled most of the fourth quarter on the way to a game-high separation of nine points in the last minute of the tight affair at SD Laktasi. Getting on the right track after losing the two previous away games of the double-legged round-robin schedule, Bahcesehir punched in the second consecutive win between the BCL and Turkey’s BSL, after jumping to 4-7 in the domestic league Saturday.
The Red Dragons matched Igokea at 3-3 but earned the second seed by winning the tiebreaker. In the next step, they will face Belgium champions Filou Oostende with homecourt advantage in the best-of-three Play-In series. Downed to the third seed, the Bosnia-Herzegovina champions instead get Hapoel Atsmon Holon with the reigning champions of Israel’s Winner League carrying the homecourt advantage.
For the team coached by Dragan Bajic, which is currently 5-6 in AdmiralBet ABA League, Kendrick Ray logged a game-high 15 points in the losing display against the 2021-22 FIBA Europe Cup champions. Wake Forest product Bryant Crawford added 13 points and five assists. Nikola Maric went for 12 points, part of a team-high efficiency rating of 16.
Postgame press conference:
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League