Four-way tie atop Turkish BSL
This week, we make a stop in Turkey and take a quick look at their domestic basketball league, the Turkish BSL. After seven rounds, it’s reasonable to expect the cream to rise to the top. And that has indeed been the case in the BSL.
As things stand, there are four teams at the top of the standings with identical 6-1 records. They are Anadolu Efes, Fenerbahce, Pinar Karsiyaka and Tofas Bursa. Let’s take a gander at how the top teams in the league fared over the weekend.
On November 9, Pinar Karsiyaka suffered their first loss of the season after a tightly contested 72-70 road loss to Bahcesehir. Mangok Mathiang came through with an 11-point, 15-rebound double-double for Bahcesehir. At the end of the day, their defense played a key role in downing the previously undefeated top team in the league. Bahcesehir recorded seven steals and committed eight turnovers compared to the two steals and nine turnovers by Pinar Karisayaka.
Pinar Karsiyaka falls to third place. While this being the first win of the season for Bahcesehir, it improves their standing to 14th place.
There were no surprises in the Gaziantep-Anadolu Efes game on November 10th as the visiting Efes club emerged victorious, 83-88. Vasilijie Micic continued on his improved play in recent games by dropping a team-high 19 points and 10 assists for the win. He’s been one of the team’s key players recently and the team’s trend has been shadowing his rise.
The win puts Efes at the apex of the standings while Gaziantep remains on the outside of the top-8 looking in, with a 2-5 record (10th).
Five Tofas Bursa players scored in double figures to power their win over Afyon on Sunday, 73-84. Devin Williams did some solid work on the glass emerging with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Tarik Phillip and Muhsin Ermis led the team with 16 points each.
Afyon fought valiantly but it wasn’t enough to match the offense that Tofas brought to the table. They are now currently in 11th place with a 2-5 record.
Last but not least was a derby game between Fenerbahce Istanbul and rivals Besiktas. The club rivalry is a well-documented one but on this night (November 10), it was Fenerbahce that won the clash 84-80.
Ahmad Al-Dwairi did not miss a single shot from the field (7-of-7) to finish the game with 17 points. Kostas Sloukas served as his backcourt scoring counterpart with 17 points of his own and six assists.
On this night, it was Fenerbahce’s loyal fans that got to hold their heads up high as their team improved to 6-1 for second place in the Turkish BSL standings.