The match started with jump ball. Motum penetrated inside and found Berke’s run to the basket. 2 points came from Berke against two defense players. Berke was also about to steal the ball but the ball went out of border. Bendzius tried 3 pts shot but it was unsuccessful. When Berke lost the ball after Hamilton’s pass, Spissu made 3 pts after a good pass traffic. Göksenin’s 3 pts try was bad and this opened the way for Sassari to go for a fast break, catching a 5-0 run. Galatasaray continued to make ball losses. Macon tried to catch up Sassari with drains. Sassari also made points in the color zone with Bilan on 1-1. Bilan was the effective side when it comes to offensive rebounds. A block come from Burnell to Motum when Motum tried to go to basket and Sassari found another fast break with Bendzius again. Hamilton penetrated from the reverse side of Motum’s screen, passed to Macon. Macon played pick & roll with Williams and Williams finished with a nice dunk. Tillman went for a chasedown after Pusica’s floater against Williams’ help. Motum tried to finish Yigit’s attack after rebound but it didn’t work. The quarter finished with 20-12 score.
The second quarter started with a ball loss from Sassari. Barıs played pick & roll with Williams but there was a foul by Tillman while shooting. But Williams had a problem with free throws. No points came here. Kruslin’s 3 pts try was abortive but Pusica got the rebound when Barıs fouled. Kruslin tried again for 3 pts but after no result Tillman got the second offensive rebound and finished. He also used free throw after foul. The pass traffic between Yigit and Macon came resultless for 3 pts but there was an unnecessary help from Tillman to Yigit that it made Macon free for any shoot. Tillman’s forced shoot from low post got nothing. Hamilton got screen from Williams, help came from Bilan but because Bilan’s angle for double team was wrong and he left the path open Hamilton used the corridor and finished nicely. Sassari drew 2 fouls and found 3 pts by them. Ayberk got free and tried 3 pts but when it came abortive, Goksenin got the rebound and found Yigit immediately. Yigit finished with a good 3 pts shot. Treier pushed Hamilton for ball loss but Hamilton compensated with a nice block to Kruslin. Galatasaray got hard times with Spissu’s 3 pts shots. With reciprocal lay-ups, the half finished with 44-30 score.
In third quarter, Motum got the ball at low post, played on 1-1 and passed his defense but Bilan came for help and blocked him. Yigit got the ball near the end line and wrote first 3 points of the half. This time, Bilon played on 1-1 at low post but Hamilton came for help. The ball went out and Sassari offense went on. Pusica got screen from Bilan and penetrated, Berke got him but Pusica found Bilan free for 2 points. Any help didn’t come from Macon. Yigit penetrated, drew the help and Berke finished with a dunk after he got the ball. Sassari uncovered Galatasaray’s fraud in defense with pass traffic and penetration. Pusica finished with 3 pts. Hamilton found Berke free but when Burnell came for help, he also stole the ball and Bilan finished the fast game with lay-up. Macon took advantage of Pusica’s unnecessary help and got 3 pts for answer. Motum’s score through 3 defense players, Yigit’s fastbreak after steal and Hamilton’s 3 pts after penetration of Macon lifted Galatasaray up. Yigit was especially effective on defense. Sassari’s players made a mistake by blocking Macon’s penetration together at the same time, letting other offense players free. 3 pts shots came from both sides. Sassari got a transition game on 4-2 but the game come out with nothing and the ball went behind the glass. Again, Galatasaray couldn’t stop Spissu’s fast 3 pts shot. Instead, they answered back with Hamilton’s dunk over penetration. The quarter finished with 65-55 score.
Last quarter was intense and Galatasaray had problems to get defensive rebounds. Tillman made a ball loss while penetrating but Bilan’s finish with Kruslin’s good asist covered it. During Galatasaray’s attack, there was a connection problem between Kruslin and Tillman to share offense players. But Galatasaray couldn’t take the advantage and Macon’s travelling opened the path to Kruslin’s long shot. Kruslin made intense press to Macon and Hamilton had to go himself. He finished with left hand from right side nicely. Barıs played pick & roll with Berke and Berke made score but after that escalation came forward. Tilmann made an unsportsmanlike foul by slapping (or pushing him) Berke’s neck and Berke fell down. But the absurdity is that Berke should’ve used free throws. Instead, Motum used them. Sassari’s bench and players objected to this situation but the referee gave the coach technical foul, no intention to correct the mistake. Motum put the tension even higher after 3 pts shot by making unnecessary contact with the Sassari’s bench with his body language ( I’m not sure whether he used verbal language or not ). And one more time, referees billed Sassari for it. Kruslin and Spissu tried to cover this tragedy with 3 pts shots. But Kruslin’s unsportsmanlike foul to Motum was unnecessary and childish. 3 pts shots from fired players like Kruslin and Spissu continued. Macon and Motum tried to answer back but Galatasaray got hard times when it came to defensive rebounds and they also made ball losses, giving Sassari many chances to make score. Berke played well against Tillman in the lower part and made score but at the end, Sassari got the win with 93-84 score.
When I put the shots aside, rebounds were the game changers for Sassari’s win. Especially 18-7 ratio for offensive rebound means that there were so many chances to make score for Sassari. Berke showed himself with low post plays and double plays with guards and for a young pivot, it was outstanding but could be better. Motum was the effective one on Galatasaray side with 3 pointers. Macon added him. Hamilton with nice reverse plays, finding the free corridors and with a nice block tried to keep the bar high. Yigit made good defence and stole the ball time to time. But on the other side Spissu’s 3 pointers were like unstoppable and Kruslin added him. Bilan was the effective side for rebounds, and Tillman came right after him. Bilan and Tillman played well on lower side of the court on 1-1. Sassari took the fast game advantages well, mostly. Pusica contribute to team’s effort with good assists. At the end, who got the ball controled the whole.
BASKETBALL WOLF 