Beşiktaş Cola Turka Women’s Basketball hosted city rivals Fenerbahçe at Akatlar Cola Turka Arena in week 19 of TBBL and came away with a valuable 62-57 derby win.

The teams traded baskets early in the contest until the Black and Whites surged ahead behind lay-ups from Lovelace. But Fenerbahçe quickly recovered on Nevriye’s jump shots and trailed by only 2 points, 8-6 with 3 minutes remaining in the quarter. After Hayden blew a chance to extended Beşiktaş Cola Turka’s lead, Brown made a bucket to tie it up at 10-10. Nonetheless, the Lady Black and Whites managed to muster 3 points in the dying seconds to take a slim 13-11 edge at the end of the opening quarter.
Beşiktaş Cola Turka opened the second quarter with lay-up by Dilek and became much more aggressive on the court. But despite out-rebounding their opponents at both ends, our ladies had trouble getting to the basket and couldn’t break the game open. While they were struggling to find open shots, their visitors tightened up on defense and came back to level the score once again with 3 minutes left to play. Then a late spurt by the yellow and dark blues put them up 28-26 before going to the locker room at the half.
Fenerbahçe began to stretch their lead in the early third quarter with a string of unanswered points to keep its perfect league record intact. Led by an excellent defensive performance from Hoffman, it upped its defensive pressure and prevented Beşiktaş Cola Turka from getting an open look at the basket. But the Black and Whites refused to surrender and fought back to pull within to 2 points, 38-36, with 2 minutes showing on the clock. Then they tried real hard to regain the lead but had to settle for a last-second jumper by Zanze that tied it up at 40-40 after three quarters of play.
Beşiktaş Cola Turka threatened to pull away in the fourth but ended up playing catch-up and could come no closer than 1 point. The visiting Fenerbahçe put together a late run to extend their lead to 6 points to steal the show but our Black and Whites battled back on clutch baskets by Zanze and managed to take a slim 56-55 lead, entering the final minute of the game. Then they went on to increase their margin to 3 points with 40 seconds left to play. Fenerbahçe made a last-ditch effort to stay alive but Lovelace sank her free throws and kept the score at 60-57. After the visitors missed a desperation 3-point attempt to send the game into overtime in dying seconds, Lovelace sealed the victory for the home side with a pair of free throws. Despite struggling at times, our Beşiktaş Cola Turka remained within striking distance throughout the game and eventually turned the game into its favor to put an end to Fenerbahçe’s undefeated streak in 19th week with a nail-biting 62-57 derby victory.