Our visiting Besiktas Cola Turka Men’s Basketball team passed Serbian FMP Zeleznik 78-77 in its third ULEP Cup Group B game and maintained sole possession of first place with a perfect record.

Black and Whites stepped on the floor with a first five consisting of Erkan Veyseloglu, Kaya Peker, Rick Apodaca, Preston Shumpert and Cevher Özer. Despite an early rally by Kaya Peker and Christian Dalmau, Beşiktaş Cola Turka fell behind midway through the opening quarter but Erkan Veyseloğlu’s jumper tied it up at 15-15 with 5 minutes to play. From that moment on, our Black and Whites had trouble finding good shots but a late surge from Sandro Nicevic helped them close out the first quarter 24-22 in front.
Undeterred by FMP’s fast second quarter start that leveled the score at 26-26 with only a minute into the half, Beşiktaş Cola Turka managed to take a 31-26 lead at the 13th minute mark of the game. Following a brief lull in which teams kept trading baskets at both ends, the visitors extended their advantage to 7 points at 40-33 on a string of unanswered baskets by Cevher Özer and Apodaca with 2 minutes remaining in the half. The Serbian team came back and erased this deficit with points from Miroslav Raduljica and Djordje Micic but baskets by Preston Shumpert and Christian Dalmau put our team ahead, 44-43 at the half-time break. 
The host team opened the third with back-to back jumpers from Zoran Erceg and Nemanja Protic and regained the lead but Besiktas Cola Turka quickly countered this surge with Apodaca and Mehmet Yagmur to tie the game at 50-50 with 6 minutes left in the quarter. And then Cevher Özer , Apodaca and Nicevic took turns to known down their shots from all over the floor and gave Black Eagle a 6 point advantage at 61-55 with 3 minutes remaining. However, the strong Serbian side refused to surrender and used a late surge from Zoran ve Djordje to crawl within 65-63 after three quarters of play. 
At the start of the fourth quarter Zoran hit a 3-pointer and put the FMP Zeleznik back on top. After the lead seesawed back and forth, clutch baskets by Christian Dalmau and Preston Shumpert helped Beşiktaş Cola Turka restore its advantage at 76-71 with 3 minutes left. However, the home team took back the lead on Dragan Labovic’s 2 consecutive 3-pointers from long range and entered the final minute of the game ahead 77-76. But our Black and Whites were determined not to give up as Erkan Veyseloglu’s last second free throws lifted them past their host 78-77 in the end. With this valuable away win Beşiktaş Cola Turka made it three wins in row and remained at the top of ULEP Cup Group B with an unblemished record.
Rick Apodaca finished the game with 15 points while Sandro Niceviç added 14 for the Turkish team. Preston Shumphert (13), Kaya Peker (11), Erkan Veyseloglu (7), Cevher Özer (7), Christian Dalmau (6) and  Mehmet Yagmur  (5) were the other scorers for Black and Whites.