In the 26th week match of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague, we were guests of the Greek team Olympiacos and we were defeated 85-87 after the extra time in the match, which ended with a 75-75 tie in the regular time. We finished the first half of the match, behind 41-42.which was played at the Peace and Friendship Hall.
Our team started with Larkin, Micic, Beaubois, Singleton, and Pleiss to the match, our first points came from Singleton and Pleiss and it was tied 8-8 in the fourth minute. With four points from Simon, teams entered the sixth with a score of 12-12. After the points from Dunston and Micic in the remaining part, we were behind 17-26 in the first 10 minutes of the game. We started the second period with three-pointers from Moerman and Elijah, and the score was 23-29 in the 12th minute. After Dunston's basket from under the hoop, Micic scored five points in a row, bringing the score to 33-37 in the 17th minute. After reducing the gap to one with Simon and Moerman, we took the lead in the 19th minute with a stylish dunk from Pleiss: 38-37. In the last minute of the half, Larkin hit from the foul line three times and we finished the first half 41-42 behind.
We started the second half with four points from Pleiss and were ahead 45-42 in the 22nd minute. When the score reached 45-50 in the 24th minute, our head coach Ergin Ataman took a time-out. After the timeout, we equalized the score in the 26th minute with the points from Beaubois and Moerman: 52-52. We scored with Pleiss, Simon and Beaubois in the remainder and the third quarter ended with a 61-61 tie. Our first points in the final period came from Dunston and Beaubois and we were leading 67-63 in the 32nd minute. Dunston, who hit from the foul line twice after the score came to 67-68 in the 33rd minute, but our team was ahead again in the 34th minute: 69-68. With two accurate free throws from Beaubois, we increased the lead to three points in the 35th minute: 71-68. We were leading 73-70 in the last two minutes of the game with the layup from Beaubois in the fast break. After the score came to 73-75 in the last minute of the match, we equalized the score in the last 14 seconds with Micic's layup: 75-75. In the remaining part, the opposing team could not score and the regular time of the match ended 75-75.
Larkin put our team ahead in the 41st minute with a three-pointer in the extra time: 78-77. While the score was 78-81 in the 42nd minute, we reduced the gap to one point with Micic's layup: 80-81. Stopped by a foul after Dunston's defensive rebound, Larkin scored two points on the foul line and we took the lead in the last 1:45 minutes of the game: 82-81. With Larkin's three-pointer, we made the score 85-82 in the last 45 seconds. We could not find a way to score in the remaining time and we lost the match 85-87 after conceding a three-point field goal in the last second of the game.
