Down 14 points with 6 minutes left, Coach Marko Barac's team rallied to beat Aris
Bahcesehir rallies to beat Aris in final second
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 16 of 18
Regular Season
group a
Bahcesehir College IstanbulBKS
8179
Aris Thessaloniki BetssonARI
group a
Overview
w
w
l
w
w
l
w
l
l
l
It was one of those games that can be seen as a turning point if Bahcesehir College Istanbul goes deep in the 2025-26 BKT EuroCup, a statement win that could change the team's future. Down 61-75 against Aris Thessaloniki Betsoon with over 6 minutes remaining, most teams would have given up. Bahcesehir chose to fight back and ended up getting a good-as-gold 81-79 victory on Malachi Flynn's game-winning layup with just 0.3 seconds remaining.
Aris had dominated the game with strong defense and much better ball circulation. At the end of the third quarter, Aris had dished 18 assists and committed just 11 turnovers. On the other hand, Bahcesehir had more turnovers (13) than assists (11) to trail 56-64 after three quarters. An outstanding Bryce Jones soon made it a 14-point game. Up to that point in the game, Aris had made 19 of 25 two-pointers (76% 2FG).
Bahcesehir needed to shift the game's momentum and did it with a series of good defensive actions leading to easy baskets. Jordan Ford buried a three-pointer, then a big block by Caleb Homesley off the glass allowed Tyler Cavanaugh to score at the other end. When Cavanaugh buried a three-pointer, the hosts trailed 69-75, and a comeback seemed to be in place.
Bahcesehir kept getting defensive stops, preventing Jones from attacking the rim and generating for others. Soon after that, Homesley struck from downtown to make it 75-77. Jones made free throws, but so did Flynn and Homesley to tie it at 79-79 in the final minute. After Aris came up empty, Flynn waited until the final seconds to go past Elijah Mitrou-Long and score at the rim. Aris had a final chance to win the game off a timeout but Trevion Williams tapped the ball to run the clock down.
Flynn finished the game with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals and 7 fouls drawn for a career-high PIR of 35.
"It was a tough game. Aris came out, made it tough on us all night, but at this point in the season every game is a must-win, so it was a team effort all the way down to the wire," Flynn said. "And I just happened to be the one that put us over the top, but it was an all-around team effort."
Aris only scored 4 free throws in the final 6 minutes, missing its last 9 field goal attempts and making 2 turnovers. Coach Barac stressed the fact that finding the right players at the right time made things happen.
"We found the lineup that worked well on the court today. I need to give credit to my players, they made some great plays, made important shots and also defensively, we changed a little bit the way we defend," Coach Barac said after the game. "We had great efforts from our bigs and fight from our guards down low on the mismatches, so everything to the players, congrats to them."
Bahcesehir finishes the EuroCup Regular Season with a home game against Slask Wroclaw in Round 17 and a road trip to Lithuania to face Neptunas Klaipeda in Round 18.
