Beşiktaş Handball Team took a step closer to its championship objective by recording a 28-26 hard fought victory over its powerful rival Milli Piyango at a game played in Süleyman Seba Sports Saloon.

Thanks to the tremendous support of their loyal fans that filled the saloon completely Black & Whites immediately went in front 1-0 with the goal scored by Utku. Although visiting team eventually managed to tie the game in the third minute, 3 consecutive goals of Bülent scored within a minute gave Beşiktaş a 4-1 edge early in the game. The effective defensive play of Black & Whites successfully stopped Capital City representative Milli Piyango’s attacks and forced them to take aggressive defensive measures against the productive performance of Beşiktaş’s goal scorers. Unable to overcome the brilliant saves of Beşiktaş’s goal keeper Yılmaz, visiting side had a 3 minute lucky period during which Beşiktaş could not widen its lead despite of back to back scoring opportunities. Nevertheless home side entered the 18th minute with an 8-3 lead. Relying on effective outside shots, Milli Piyango was able to reduce the deficit to 2 goals near the end of the first half (12-10). The aggressive defensive show of the Ankara team started to pay its dividends and prevented Beşiktaş from scoring. Black & Whites hit the cross bar twice in the closing 10 seconds but still went to locker room with a 12-11 advantage.
Beşiktaş started the second half with Saffet Halilagiç’s goal and tried to steal the game by widening its lead but Milli Piyango again reduced the deficit to a single point in the 35th minute of the game (15-14). From that point of time, the game turned into a well contested exciting performance by both teams. While the repeated scoring attempts of visiting team were bravely countered by Beşiktaş’s defense, Milli Piyango finally managed to level the score in the 14th minute of the second half (19-19). Although Black & Whites eventually lost its defensive game discipline, the one-man show of goal keeper Yılmaz kept Beşiktaş in the game. The critical and well time goals by Ramazan and Valeri duo enabled the home side to stay in front and Black & Whites entered the final 5 minutes with a single goal advantage (25-24). Ensuing goals by Utku and Valeri not only increased the deficit to 3 points for Beşiktaş but also gave a fresh air of breathing to its fans in the stands during the remaining 3 minutes of the game. Since there was not sufficient time left for Milli Piyango to reduce the gap and Black & Whites won this hard fought contest with a score of 28-26. Thanks to this victory in which our goal keeper Yılmaz played an undeniably important role, Beşiktaş raised its points to 27 and turned a critical corner in its ongoing pursuit of championship.