MIES (Switzerland) - Telekom Baskets Bonn had won their previous nine games in the Round of 16, but Galatasaray EKMAS did not care about that run in the Sinan Erdem Arena in Istanbul on Tuesday evening.

The Turkish juggernauts stormed to a 98-85 win, their first in the Round of 16 after three straight defeats, keeping them alive in the battle for the top two spots in Group J.

Another plus for them was the fact they won the game by exactly 13 points, matching the difference from their first matchup with Bonn, which could be important in case of a tie at the end of the Round of 16.

"The team did a very good job, we had contributions from almost every player, offensively and defensively everyone was involved," Galatasaray star Klemen Prepelic said afterwards.

"I think we were a much better team on the court, we matched or increased their intensity which is their main quality."

The hosts created separation in the third quarter, and ran away to an 18-point lead to secure the win. Bonn fought back to keep the deficit at 13 points and do just the right amount of damage control, led by Glynn Watson's 19 points.

It was an unusual game for Galatasaray, and perhaps a switch in their mentality. Usually, their wins came on hot three-point shooting games, but this time around they knocked down just eight triples.

Instead, they kept driving inside and finding their bigs to outscore the visitors in the paint 44-32 and score 14 second-chance points to Bonn's 7.

"I've said it before, we have enough talent on the team to score 90+ points in every game and if we play this hard in every game, especially defensively and on the rebounds, we have good chances to beat any opponent," Prepelic added.

The Slovenian guard is still hot from his national team run, getting 20 points off the bench on Tuesday  on 10-of-11 shooting from the free throw line. But the real story behind the numbers was David McCormack.

The big guy had 17 points and 8 rebounds while playing just under 24 minutes. That kept the streak going, Galatasaray are 5-0 when he plays more than 21 minutes, 0-3 when he plays less than 21.

 
Galatasaray will look to make it back-to-back wins against German teams, as they play host to MHP RIESEN Ludwigsburg next week. Bonn await JDA Bourgogne Dijon in Germany a couple of hours later on Tuesday.

The defending champs suffered their first Round of 16 defeat  since 2020, and missed out on a chance to become the first team this season to clinch a Quarter-Finals berth.  They are still top of the Group J standings though, at 3-1.