Our Beşiktaş Cola Turka Men’s Basketball Team pulled off a 79-78 victory over visiting Casa TED Ankara Kolejliler at BJK Akatlar Cola Turka Arena in its last game of the Beko Basket League before the winter break. 

Teams traded baskets in the early going until Beşiktaş Cola Turka tightened its defense and opened a 10 point lead at 16-6 following back-to-back jumpers by Dalmau and Nicevic with 3 minutes to play in the quarter. Backed by a superior rebounding, the hot-shooting Black and Whites prevented their visitors from getting too close and disrupted Casa TED’s defensive rhythm with fast-breaks points as they carried a 22-13 lead into the second quarter.
After opening the second with Ricky’s long-range three, Casa TED came alive and cut the deficit to 4 points on a lay-up by Dearman. Playing aggressive defense, they hit consecutive threes to level the score at 26-26 midway through the quarter. Then, the representatives from Ankara city went on to take the lead behind baskets by McFarlin, Dearman and Ricky. Despite blowing a 9-point first quarter advantage, Black and Whites remained within reach with a late surge from Cevher Özden and closed out the first half in a 38-38 tie.
In second half teams matched each other point for point until the final buzzer as the lead changed hands several times. After a 3-minute dry spell, in which teams managed to score only 7 points, it was 42-41 for Beşiktaş Cola Turka. But Casa TED Ankara Kolejliler refused to go away and rallied back to pull ahead, 47-43, behind a productive offensive outing from their quartet of Ömer, Ricky, Dearman and Mcfarlin with 3 minutes remaining in the quarter. Out-rebounding their hosts on the defensive glass, the visitors forced Black and Whites to take outside shots and scored easy fast-break baskets off Beşiktaş Cola Turka’s turnovers. Undeterred by their opponents’ overall performance, the Black and Whites battled back to regain the lead behind jumpers from Kaya Peker with 30 seconds left in the third, but following Dearman’s free-throws, still trailed 57-55 heading to the final quarter.
Casa TED carried its momentum into fourth and held a 62-60 edge after 3 minutes of play. Backed by a solid defense, the Ankara city representatives kept the Black and Whites away from the basket and managed to maintain their lead through most of the quarter. But, Kaya Peker returned and converted 4 free-throws in row to put Beşiktaş Cola Turka up, 70-66, with 2 minutes left to play.
The game turned into a nail-biter for both teams in the final minute of the regulation as Casa TED made 3 consecutive threes and recaptured the lead at 75-74. After Apodaca responded with a lay-up to put Black and Whites on top once again, Ricky took the center stage and nailed a clutch three that gave his team a 78-76 lead with only 8 seconds left in the game. But Beşiktaş Cola Turka Men’s Basketball Team made proper use of its final scoring attempt with a 3-point play by its Croatian star Nicevic who drove to the basket for a lay-up over 3 Casa TED defenders and also gained a foul. Since the visitors couldn’t find the target during the remaining 1.8 seconds, our Black and Whites escaped with a dramatic 79-78 victory.