The Turkish outfit displayed its road warrior mentality once again
Besiktas has turned its 'disadvantages into advantages'
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3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 10 of 18
Group A
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For the third time in a row, Besiktas Fibabanka Istanbul won a game on the road, and this time it needed to give everything it got to hold off Buducnost VOLI Podgorica 88-90.
Kelan Martin scored 8 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, and Dustin Sleva had 9 of his 16 points in the final stanza.
Jonah Mathews and Kyle Allman hit important shots, but none was more important than Derek Needham's triple with 35 seconds left that made it 85-89.
"The win is important for the standings, for team chemistry," Mathews said. "Important for everything."
Coach Dusan Alimpijevic agreed.
"This is an amazing win for us," the Besiktas head coach said. "We have been playing without a '5', and the main thing is we just turn our disadvantages into our advantages."
Due to their lack of size, Besiktas's bigs were stretching the floor more rather than rolling to the basket.
"I think that was a problem for Buducnost to find a solution," added Alimpijevic.
Looking at the box score, with Besiktas outrebounding the hosts 35-33, and 17-9 on the offensive glass, few would think Besiktas had a size disadvantage.
"Big congrats to my players for their desire. Without a '5', 17 offensive rebounds. A big game for them."
Besiktas now hosts the Group A leader and city rival Bahcesehir College Istanbul, then goes on a stretch of three more road games.
Considering how it has fared away from home lately, don't be surprised the team holding a 6-4 record continues its climb up the standings.