The visitors shot the lights out and kept their feet on the gas in the fourth quarter
Besiktas shines from long range to thrash Trefl
Besiktas Fibabanka Istanbul improved to 4-3 in Group A of the BTK EuroCup after blistering shooting from deep helped it to a 79-100 road win over Trefl Sopot in Round 7.
Jonah Mathews led the charge with a game-high 21 points. Yigit Arslan added 19 points while Conor Morgan and Dustin Sleva chipped in with 11 apiece for the visitors, who found an extra gear in the last few minutes to break Sopot down after leading for the lion’s share of the contest.
Trefl, which is still winless as the Polish outfit dropped to 0-7, was paced by Andy van Vleet who had 15 points. Robert McGowens scored 15, Aaron Best amassed 12 and Mikolaj Witllinski netted 11, but the supporting cast was well short of the requirements for the home team to register its first win of the season in the competition.
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Trefl made a promising start as the hosts raced into a 6-2 lead, but they nosed ahead for the last time in the game, 17-16, before a 4-16 run by Besiktas turned the tide for good. The visitors were 25-32 ahead at the end of the first quarter.
Although Sopot fought hard to slash the deficit, the Turkish team led 33-45 midway through the second quarter before the home side managed to close the gap to 51-57 at halftime.
Besiktas thrived from deep as it made 8 of 13 shots from downtown in the opening two quarters and the visiting team carried on in the second half where it left off in the first, with Mathews scoring its first 7 points after the break.
Still, stubborn Sopot kept coming and soon closed in to 72-75 late in the third quarter before a Besiktas blitz lifted the visitors to 74-81 ahead of the final 10 minutes.
The fourth quarter was one-way traffic as Besiktas, which was 78-86 in front midway through the final period, beefed up its defense and raced clear on the back of a 1-14 streak in the last few minutes to celebrate an emphatic victory over its beleaguered rival.