In its final group encounter, Beşiktaş Cola Turka men’s basketball edged past visiting Goettingen, 91-86, at the Arena on Tuesday.

The game started evenly with the Eagles narrowly ahead, 8-7, at the half way point. In the closing minutes, hot-handed Bekir Yarangüme, who had been nailing jumpers from all over the court, teamed up with Cevher Özer to trigger a late surge that put the Black and White in front, 24-18, going into second frame. Bekir Yarangüme had 15 points for Beşiktaş Cola Turka in the first stanza, followed by Cevher Özer who poured in 7.
The Germans relied mostly on outside shots in the second and managed to erase the deficit as the game was knotted at 29-29 midway through the quarter. From then on, the whole thing turned into a see-saw affair with neither side gaining any significant advantage until a flurry of buckets by Cevher Özer and Ismail Çevik gave the Eagles a 44-39 edge at halftime.
Beşiktaş Cola Turka opened the second half with an 8-2 spurt and rode Mire Chatman’s hot-shooting to build a 12 point cushion, 58-46, with 2:10 showing on the clock. Goetting tried to rally back in the dying minutes but was still down, 60-51, after the three quarters of play.
Led by Scott, the German team mounted an effective comeback at the outset of the fourth and tied the score at 66 with 5 minutes left, turning the game into another dog-fight, with the Black and White clinging to a three-point, 77-74, lead, entering the final minute. But Meeks unleashed a 9-foot turnaround fadeaway with 10 seconds to play and brought the teams back on level terms, 79-79. When Mire Chatman turned the ball over in the remaining seconds, the game went into overtime. The Eagles received a number of clutch baskets from Cevher Özer and Mire Chatman in overtime to walk away with a hard-fought 91-86 victory.
Beşiktaş’s injured star Allen Iverson watched the game from the stands.