Galatasaray Cafe Crown rallied from 8 points behind with 3 minutes left to take its first and only lead when it counted most, defeating host GasTerra Flames by 65-66 in Holland on Tuesday in their Group E opener. Preston Shumpert's 5-for-6 free-throw shooting in the final 2 minutes - including his pair to finish the game - made the difference. Galatasaray had trailed 61-53 with 3 minutes left, before Rado Rankic scored 5 points in 60 seconds that turned the game around. Rancik led the visitors with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Shumpert added 15 points, while Joshua Shipp chipped in 10 and 5 steals. GasTerra made 9 three-pointers as compared to 3 for their guests and outrebounded Galatasaray 43-33, but 19 turnovers and 10-for-19 free-throw shooting doomed the hosts. Stephen Ross led GasTerra with 15 points, including 4 of 6 three-point shooting, while Matt Haryasz had 12 and 7 rebounds.
The hosts used Jason Dourisseau's 2 three-pointers to race ahead 8-2. Haryasz added his first and Matthew Bauscher another from downtown to make it 13-6, while Galatasaray started getting baskets from Rancik and Andric inside. Turek and Dourisseau boosted the lead to 20-8 before another Galatasaray big man, Ermal Kuqo, answered, but Haryasz closed the quarter with the hosts in charge, 22-11. Another pair of GasTerra shooters, Matthew Otten and Aron Roije, struck from downtown as their team's lead soared to 30-13 early in the second quarter. Shumpert and Kuqo got 5 quick points back for the guests, whose defense also jelled then. Shumpert and Joshua Shipp soon lowered the difference to 39-28, although Otten quickly re-opened the GasTerra advantage to 43-30. Shipp made the end of the half his own, however, and with 4 points by himself, returned the difference to single digits, 43-34, at the break.
The Galatasaray comeback continued with Rancik taking over with 7 points in a 0-9 run to open the third quarter by tying the game 43-43. The visitors held GasTerra without points for almost 7 minutes until Stephen Ross became his team's fifth player to hit a three-pointer. Now it was the GasTerra defense that tightened enough to let the hosts follow Haryasz and Jason Ellis on a 9-1 run to close the quarter and lead by 52-44 - just a point less than at halftime - at the end of 30 minutes. GasTerra was content to exchange baskets and even three-pointers between Turek and Caner Topaloglu early in the final quarter as a layup by Henry Bekkering held the margin at 58-50 going into the last 5 minutes. It was still the same lead after a triple by Ross made it 61-53 heading into the final 3 minutes, which is when Galatasaray made a move. In just a minute, Rancik made a pair of layups, one of which came with a free throw, to suddenly put Galatasaray within striking distance of the victory at 61-59. Ross tried to stop those thoughts with a big triple for the hosts, but in the free throw battle to come, Shumpert and Topaloglu hit 7 of 8 for the guests, while GasTerra missed 3 of 4. Shumpert's pair with seconds on the clock gave Galatasaray a 65-66 lead, its very first of the entire game, but the only one that counted in the end.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Eurocupbasketball.com