Turk Telekon Ankara started its Eurocup season on the right foot with a 54-76 road win at Bnei Eshet Tours Hasharon on Tuesday night in Ra'anana, Israel. Turk Telekom held a small lead from the start and used a second quarter run to take a 27-35 lead at the break. The gap increased to 18 early in the second half, but Bnei Hasharon cut it down to 7, before the visitors made their final and deciding run to seal the win. The visitors benefited from Bnei Hasharon’s terrible shooting day that included making only 2 three-pointers out of 18 attempts. And Bnei Hasharon’s guards were 0 for 14 from behind the arc. Serkan Erdogan led Turk Telekom with 15 points, 8 of them in a row in the deciding fourth-quarter run. Erwin Dudley added 13 with 10 rebounds, Bekir Yarangume scored 11 and Kennedy Winston had 10. Ugonna Onyekwe led Bnei Hasharon with 12 points and he was their only player to score a three pointer. Richard Roby added 10 while Ousmane Cisse scored 7 with 13 boards.

Right from tip-off it was clear Bnei Hasharon wouldn’t have an easy time scoring against the aggressive and tough Telekom defense. It took more than three minutes before the locals scored their first points, and while 5 turnovers in the early minutes saw the visitors take an early 2-8 lead. Onyekwe scored from near and far to make it just 12-14 after 10 minutes, but 8 unanswered points by Turk Telekom gave the visitors their first double-digit lead of the night, 12-22. Meir Tapiro started to collect points but it was enough only to bring his teams to 27-35 by the break.

Bnei Hasharon continued its woes into the third period, while Yarangume scored a corner three to make it 30-48 and became the first player to reach double digits with 11 after 25 minutes. Bnei Hasharon wasn't ready to give up yet. An unsportsmanlike foul on Baris Ermis gave the home team a chance to start a run, and with a step up on defense put Turk Telekom under pressure for an 11-2 run, capped by a big fast break dunk by Roby. Defense played a big role on both ends as Rod Blakney came up with a big steal to stop a dunk, but Bnei Hasharon forced a turnover on the way to getting within 9 with 20 seconds to play in the third. Turk Telekom was ready to run the clock, but Tapiro’s steal and an Onyewkwe follow dunk made it 7 before Winston silenced the fans at the buzzer, making it 45-54 with 10 minutes to go. Blakney committed his fourth personal foul early in the fourth, but his team continued to play tough defense and limit Bnei Hasharon to 3 points over the first seven minutes of the last quarter. And when Erdogan netted 8 points in a row, it was enough to set the margin on 48-70. Bnei Hasharon took a timeout, but still didn't find the net, as the margin increased to a maximum of 48-74.