We hosted Fenerbahçe Beko in the third match of the Türkiye Sigorta Basketball Super League Play-off Semi-Finals and we won the game 97-91. We were ahead 52-51 in the first half of the match played at Sinan Erdem Dome.
After this score, we brought the situation to 2-1 in the series. The fourth match of the series will be played on Friday, June 9, again at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall.
While our team started the game with Micic, Larkin, Clyburn, M'Baye, and Pleiss starting five, our first points came from the hands of Clyburn and M'Baye and it was passed with a score of 5-5 in the third minute. After Micic's three-pointer, Pleiss' points were passed in the sixth minute with a score of 12-13. Elijah and I took the lead for the first time in the game in the seventh minute: 15-13. We scored with M'Baye and Pleiss in the remaining time and were behind 22-24 in the first 10 minutes of the game. We started the second period with Micic's three-pointer and the 11th minute was passed with a score of 25-27. With Elijah and Micic's points, the score was 32-38 in the 14th minute. With Larkin and Elijah hitting the foul line, the score was 40-44 in the 17th minute. After Clyburn and Micic's three points each, Elijah's layup tied the score in the 19th minute: 48-48. In the final moments of the half, we had two free throws with Larkin and then a stylish dunk with Clyburn, leading 52-51 in the first half of the game.
We started the second half with Pleiss under the basket, Clyburn and Elijah on the outside by scoring points and we were leading 63-61 in the 23rd minute. When the score was 63-70 at 25:30, Coach Ataman took a time-out. On the return from the timeout, the score was 65-70 in the 27th minute with the mid-range hit from Pleiss. In the remaining three minutes, we scored two points with Pleiss and four points with Clyburn, leading 71-78 into the final 10 minutes of the game. Our first point in the final period came from Micic on the foul line and we made the score 72-78 at 30:30. After Elijah and Micic's points, the score was 81-86 in the 34th minute. We narrowed the gap to three points at 34:30 after Pleiss hit the basket, and the opposing team's timeout came. After the timeout, we took the lead at 36:30 with Micic's four points: 87-86. With Clyburn and Micic's points, we were ahead 93-89 in the last 50 seconds of the game. In the remaining part, we scored with M'Baye, Elijah, and Micic and we won the match 97-91.
