Our Beşiktaş Cola Turka Men’s Basketball Team faced Turk Telekom in Game 3 of its semifinal playoff series in Ankara and the host team earned a hard-fought 75-71 victory to advance to the finals with a 3-1 series lead.

After scoring the opening basket of the game, the Black and White took control early and led most of the quarter. Despite having trouble containing hot-shooting El-Amin at times, Kaya Peker and Drobnjak dominated the boards with 13 rebounds, as Beşiktaş Cola Turka pulled ahead 17-14 by the end of first quarter.
Our boys in Black and White continued to out-rebound Turk Telekom in the second and stiffened their defense to prevent easy baskets. Beşiktaş Cola Turka was up 28-24 midway through the quarter. Then El-Amin started hitting back-to-back shots to spark a late comeback that put the home team ahead for the first time in the game. The Black and White tried to stay close with jumpers by Shumpert and Kaya Peker but hurried outside shots and the rebounds seemed to always bounce Turk Telekom’s way, as the blue and white squad from Ankara City carried a 40-33 lead into the locker room at the break.
After Kaya Peker made a lay-up to start the second half, Beşiktaş Cola Turka turned to an aggressive defense but somehow could not get its offense going. The Black and White attempted to chip away at the deficit but was still trailing 47-41 at the halfway mark. Then Turk Telekom put together another spirited rally to take a 10-point lead at 51-41 with 4:00 left. Spurred by Apadoca’s 3-pointer, Beşiktaş Cola Turka finally showed some signs of life in the closing stages with consecutive buckets to pull within 56-50 after three quarters of play.
The Black and White pressed hard in the final stanza to get back into the game, as Apodoca nailed a jumper from the painted area to slice the margin to 4 points. Sinan Güler followed it up with a hook shot and Beşiktaş Cola Turka was suddenly back within 2, 56-54, with over 8:00 remaining in the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, thanks to a series of lay-ups, Turk Telekom was still holding onto a 63-56 edge midway through the quarter. But riding Apadoca’s hot hand, our undeterred boys in Black and White refused to give up and cut the deficit to 2 points at 67-65 with 2:00 showing on the clock on baskets by Nicevic and Kaya Peker. Unfortunately, Turk Telekom would not allow them get any closer and wrapped up the series with a 75-71 win to advance to the finals.