The home side produced a strong second half after struggling in the first to enjoy the win
Turk Telekom blows away tame Lions and closes in on postseason
Отчеты о матчах
3 Минутное чтение
Regular Season
Round 14 of 18
Regular Season
group b
Turk Telekom AnkaraTTA
8863
London LionsLDN
group b
Overview
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Turk Telekom Ankara solidified its chances of reaching the BKT EuroCup postseason after an 88-63 home rout of London Lions thanks to a majestic second half, which the Turkish side dominated 58-31 on Wednesday.
Turk Telekom improved to 9-5 in Group B while the Lions dropped to 5-9 after losing four of their last five, going down tamely due to a disjointed performance after the break, having led for the bulk of the first. The home team raced into a 6-0 lead, but the Lions, who thrived on offensive boards in the opening 20 minutes, surged ahead 18-28 in the second quarter as Turk Telekom struggled from long range. The hosts closed the gap to 30-21 at the half.
The matchup got turned on its head after the break as Turk Telekom put together a 13-1 run and never looked back. The Turkish squad started hitting shots from downtown and took charge in the paint, as forward Marko Simonovic finished on 13 rebounds while Uros Trifunovic paced the home team on a game-high 16 points.
Kyle Allman chipped in with 10 points and 4 assists, while Ata Kahraman added 11 points as Turk Telekom dished out 21 assists and racked up 40 boards. London, which led the battle of the boards 22-15 at halftime, collected a mere 10 rebounds in the second half and just 2 of them came on the offensive end as the visitors looked completely at sea against a free-flowing Turk Telekom.
“Our attitude and the way we approached the game changed in the third quarter,” Turk Telekom head coach Erdem Can said in his postgame comments. ”Our offense was unacceptable in the first half. A big thanks to our fans, I hope we can give them more and more as everything will be better with them. Every game is so important and we need to focus on the next one we’re playing on the road.”
Simonovic, who was a handful in the paint for his rivals, praised his teammates who rediscovered their mojo at the interval after a poor first half. Turk Telekom won the third quarter 30-10 and Simonovic was delighted as the hosts kept their foot on the gas in the fourth.
“I want to congratulate my teammates, we played much better in the second half than we did in the first,” he said. “London missed some players, but it’s still not easy to play against a running team like them. I hope we can continue to play the way we did today.”
