Visiting Beşiktaş Cola Turka Women’s Basketball Team falls 85-59 to Galatasaray at Ayhan Şahenk Sports Hall in the last game of the regular season.

With this result, while Galatasaray finished fourth with 33 points, the Black and White ended up in the fifth place with 32 points.

Since Galatasaray won both league games, it now has a 1-0 advantage in playoff match-up.

MATCH DETAILS

After Sophia Young opened the scoring with a layup, Marina Kress and Seimmone Augustus each hit back-to-back jumpers to give Galatasaray an early 6-0 lead. Despite Gergana Branznova Erdenay’s three-pointer, Galatasaray—playing tenacious defense—built a 10-3 advantage at the halfway point. With a barrage of outside shots, the gap grew to 12 points at 17-5 with 3:00 minutes left in the opening quarter. Branzova Erdenay interrupted the host team’s run with another three; yet the Lady Black and White still trailed 19-9 heading into the second.

At the onset of the second frame, Yasemin Horasan answered Liron Cohen’s free-throws with a 14-footer, but Beşiktaş Cola Turka managed to shake off its sluggish start; as Müjde Yüksel teamed up with Naile İvegin to bring the Black and White within 20-16 after two and a half minutes. However, the yellow and red team would not let our Ladies get any closer than that and got a string of unanswered points from Tuğba Palazoğlu and Yasemin Horasan to build its lead back to double digits at 29-16 midway through the quarter. Beşiktaş Cola Turka tried to stay in the game with Naile İvegin but was unable to find a way to stop hot-shooting Işıl Alben, who made sure that the gap remained intact. Galatasaray took a 43-27 cushion into the break.

Braxton and Tuğba Taşcı traded baskets to start the second half; then the host team went on to stretch its lead to 50-32 with consecutive buckets and seize complete control. Cheered on by a boisterous home crowd, Galatasaray rode the hot-shooting of Braxton, Sophia Young and Yasemin Horasan to open an insurmountable 70-41 lead after three quarters of play.

Saziye Karslı drove to the hoop for a layup to start the final stanza, only to see Branzova Erdenay respond with a 16-foot jumper along the left baseline. From that point on, however, both squads would fall into a scoring drought and hit nothing but the iron for several minutes. Nevertheless, Galatasaray entered the final three minutes with an 81-53 advantage en route to a convincing 85-59 home victory.