The Besiktas center collected his fifth double-double of the season.
Angel Delgado dominated the paint against Wolves
Angel Delgado was dominant inside for Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul and led the Turkish side to a comfortable 72-59 victory over Wolves Vilnius on Wednesday. The Besiktas center bagged a double-double by recording 16 points and matching his career-highs of 14 rebounds and a PIR of 30. Delgado recorded a career high in assists with 6 and his complete stat line included 1 steal and 6 drawn fouls in just 25:58 minutes on the floor.
The 29-year-old made the difference in the first half, finishing the second quarter with 9 points and 9 rebounds. He completed his double-double less than four minutes into the second half when he already had 11 points and as many rebounds. Meanwhile, 2 of his assists in the last quarter produced a couple of highlights, with Kyle Allman pulling off two dunks to get the fans off their seats.
“Without my teammates, I would never play like this,” Delgado said after the game. “I want to thank the coaches too for preparing me to have an amazing game.”
Back in October, Wolves grabbed a narrow 90-88 victory, with Tre'Shawn Thurman scoring 31 points, including the winning basket. Delgado admitted that the loss in Lithuania frustrated his team which sought revenge at the Bjk Emlakjet Sports & Event Hall on Wednesday evening.
“I feel good about this win,” Delgado added. “Because of what they did to us in the last game, that’s why we came [into the game] really aggressive. We wanted to destroy them. And that’s what we did.”
Besiktas was solid on defense throughout the encounter. The hosts allowed Wolves to score just 1 point in the first 7 minutes of the duel, with the visitors finishing the first quarter with just 9 points. Wolves improved its scoring tally in the second quarter, but netted just 23 points in the first half. Besiktas forced the visitors to 21 turnovers and scored 27 points off these errors to clinch a comfortable victory.
“Everything started and ended today with our defense and our toughness,” head coach Dusan Alimpijevic said after the game. “When we play like this, I’m really not afraid of anyone. I think that my team has a big potential, especially defensively, to play games like this. At the end of the day, I think that this will be the most important thing when important times come. Now we have five tough games in front of us and we’re playing for [a] better [position in the] standings.”
With Wednesday’s home win, Besiktas improved to an 8-5 record. The next game of the Turkish side will take place at Umana Reyer Venice on January 10, with their last three duels being against strong sides London Lions, Paris Basketball and Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv.