Play-Offs Round of 16 report: Green, Ponitka shine as Karsiyaka down Besiktas in first leg
IZMIR (Basketball Champions League) - Pinar Karsiyaka beat Besiktas, 75-70, in the first leg of their Round of 16 battle in the Basketball Champions League on Wednesday night.
Playing in a red-hot atmosphere of the Karsiyaka Arena and in the competition's first battle between two Turkish sides, the hosts got 25 points from Mike Green and 22 from Mateusz Ponitka.
Vladimir Stimac took over the game for Besiktas in the third quarter and finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds but it was the home team to claim the five-point first-leg advantage.
👏 @KSKBasket use that amazing home court atmosphere to claim a 75-70 win over @BJK_Basketbol! #BasketballCL pic.twitter.com/iCogiyYRoY
— #BasketballCL (@BasketballCL) March 1, 2017
The second leg will be played next week in Istanbul.
"It's really nice that we won this game," Ponitka said. "First of all, we knew that it was going to be a tough game, all 40 minutes. We came in really focused after losing our last game to Fener (Fenerbahce), which was bad luck for us.
"We knew this was a chance for us to redeem ourselves and I think everyone came ready to fight for 40 minutes. We shared the ball, we played team basketball and we tried to play really smart. So I think we should be happy with a result like this. We're looking forward to going to Istanbul."
Nenad Markovic's Karsiyaka had to win a Play-Off Qualifier tie against Fraport Skyliners just to make it this far and set up a showdown with one of the best teams during the Regular Season.
They had the better start, outscoring the Istanbul outfit 22-13 in the opening quarter and going in front by as many as 11 points.
But Besiktas clawed the deficit back to 41-40 at half-time with Earl Clark and DJ Strawberry pouring in 18 of the team's 27 points in the second frame.
The contest was tight the rest of the way, with Besiktas taking their biggest lead of the game midway through the fourth quarter when Stimac made the first of two free-throws for a 62-59 advantage.
Pinar Karsiyaka, however, found a higher gear and when DaJuan Summers drilled a 3-pointer coming out of a timeout with just 25 seconds to play, they led by seven.
Stimac then dunked coming out of a Besiktas timeout to reduce the arrears to five and Karsiyaka had to settle for a five-point lead in the tie.
