“It was an important match for both teams for the league placement. We’ve got what we want. We won 2 matches on the point list. Beşiktaş Sompo Japan is our biggest rival for the third line on the placement. We’ve lost the first match with 3 points, we wanted to win this match with the at least 4-point difference. The match was, as awaited, highly competitive but was full of mistakes. There were turnovers for both teams, as it is natural for a stressful match. We were better on defense. Though we had unnecessary turnovers on offense. These turnovers held us back from getting our normal score. At the last part McCollum participated, we have used Simon effectively as well. We managed to defend and gained what we wanted and we climbed to the third place.”

Our team captain Doğuş Balbay also stated his thoughts at the press conference as: “First of all, this was a match that its importance was times two than any other. Because we wanted to hold the advantage in a possible Beşiktaş match. Our priority was to win, our second target was to win with 4 or more point difference. We managed to reach our target today with a nice fight. After the Baskonia match, this victory gave us a strength. We have shown that we fight with confidence and belief. I hope that we go to the playoffs in the best way, and at least get ready after the Turkey Cup and win it.”