The Turkish side did its job at home and reached the postseason after a nerve-jangling victory
Besiktas beats Trento 79-75 to earn playoff spot
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Besiktas Fidabanka Istanbul reached the BKT EuroCup Eighthfinals after a dramatic 79-75 home win over Dolomiti Energia Trento enabled the Turkish team to finish fifth in Group A with a 10-8 record. Trento, which had earlier lost any chance of advancing into the business end of the competition, finished at 6-12 in what has been a patchy season for the Italian league leader.
Derek Needham paced Besiktas on 17 points while Kyle Allman and Dustin Sleva chipped in with 12 each for the hosts, who nearly spilled a comfortable lead in a thrilling climax. At the other end, Jordan Ford carried Trento with a game-high 21 points, Anthony Lamb added 13 and Myles Cale netted 10 for the visitors.
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Besiktas set the pace early and took a 10-6 lead but Trento fought hard to stay in touch, although the visiting team struggled to make shots from long range. Needham was clinical at the other end, hitting 3 of his opening 4 efforts from downtown as Besiktas carved out a 22-15 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
The home team also dominated the paint, winning the battle of the boards 13-8 in the opening 10 minutes while Trento’s shooting woes continued in the second, as the Italian side missed their opening 10 attempts from deep and allowed the hosts to pull away to 34-23.
Trento, which had only pride to play for, refused to lie down, but failed to match the home team’s firepower as Besiktas sank 5 of 10 from downtown in the first half while the visitors went 2 of 14, with the Turkish team engineering a 46-35 halftime lead.
Needham paced the hosts on 9 points at the interval while big man Uros Plavsic, who recently joined Besiktas from Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade posted 7 and 4 boards. Trento, which trailed by as many as 16 points late in the second quarter, relied on Ford who racked up 10 points and 4 boards.
Battling Trento put together a 0-11 run late in the first half and early in the second, slashing the deficit to 46-41 before a fine backdoor pass allowed Allman to dunk and snap that streak. That spurred Besiktas back into action and the home team ramped up its defense again to open up a 63-52 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Needham nailed another deep three early in the fourth to give Besiktas a 68-54 advantage before Trento replied with a Selom Mawugbe slam dunk and a fine Quinn Ellis mid-range jumper, forcing the home team’s head coach Dusan Alimpijevic to call a timeout.
The contest remained relentlessly competitive and Trento further closed the gap to 74-70 in the closing stages as Ford sank a sweet three-pointer and forced another timeout from Alimpijevic with 2:21 left on the clock. Moments later, it was 74-72 and Trento then committed two successive turnovers, throwing away a pair of glorious chances to turn the matchup on its head as Sleva scored on a fastbreak at the other end. Jordan Bayehe then made a three-point play for Trento to make the score 76-75 with 15 seconds remaining, forcing a dramatic climax in which Needham held his nerve from the foul line to seal Besiktas’s progress.