Our Beşiktaş Cola Turka Women’s Basketball Team posted a 62-52 valuable victory over visiting Fenerbahçe at BJK Akatlar Sports and Culture Complex in the third match of the final playoff series and tied the series at 2-2.

Black & Whites started this critical Istanbul derby with Esmeral Tunçluer, Kara Braxton, Lovelace, Sheri Sam and Şebnem Kimyacıoğlu and immediately grabbed a 5-0 lead with consecutive baskets scored in a row. In contrast to previous games, Black & Whites displayed a much superior performance than their traditional rivals throughout the game and allowed only 5 points during the first 7 minutes. Beşiktaş Cola Turka eventually managed to combine this solid defensive effort with efficient scoring which established a serious advantage for the home team to last early on. As a result, Beşiktaş was able to complete the first period with 21-7 in front.
The supremacy of our Ladies in rebounding continued in the second period as well while all attempts by visiting yellow and dark blue team to reduce the deficit and get back into the game were successfully averted by the accurate 3 pointers of Beşiktaş Cola Turka’s forwards. Unable to match this productive performance, Fenerbahçe forwards also started creating costly turnovers because the sound defensive play of Black Eagle would not offer them any easy scoring chance. Black & Whites successfully built up a 14 point commanding advantage going into the locker room at the end of the first half (34-20).
Since both teams started the second half with an equally aggressive defense, neither team was able to score during the first 2 minutes. However Beşiktaş Cola Turka eventually reasserted its supremacy in the game once again thanks to consecutive 3 pointers scored by Esmeral who probably played her best game of the season. As an outcome of this scoring run, the deficit between İstanbul’s arch rivals grew to 17 points in favor of the host. Back to back defensive errors of Fenerbahçe widened this point gap even further as Black & Whites entered into fourth period holding an insurmountable 50-31 lead.
 
During the final period, Fenerbahçe Ülker relied solely on its 3 point shooting game to generate points as a last resort. This sudden change in tactics gradually paid its dividend and visitors from Kadiköy started to erase the deficit with an unanswered 19-0 run. Despite a rather sluggish effort by Beşiktaş Cola Turka near to end, our Black & White Ladies successfully held off this late charge of visitors and managed to hold on to their lead until the final buzzer as they posted a much needed 62-55  victory. With this result the final playoff series are tied at 2-2.
The third game of the series will be played at Caferağa Sports Saloon on Thursday.