Giants Stave Off Elimination

Roel Moors and the Antwerp Giants are still breathing in the Last 16 after an upset win in Izmir

Antwerp Giants lived to fight another day in the EuroChallenge by travelling to Turkey and shocking Pinar Karsiyaka, 86-80.

Without a win in their first three EuroChallenge Last 16 Group J games, the Belgian club won and gained partial revenge for their 89-82 overtime setback at home to Karsiyaka last month.

The win would have been even sweeter had Alper Saruhan not scored with an alley-oop dunk for Karsiyaka to finish the game, giving the Turkish side a +1 goal differential in the two games.

Antwerp won with great play on the interior.

They were 34 of 48 inside the arc, off-setting their two of 14 effort from long range and 12-of-20 horror show at the free-throw line.

Big man Graham Brown led Antwerp with a team-high 22 points while guard Timothy Black poured in 20.

Karsiyaka also missed numerous opportunities at the free-throw line, sinking just 18 of 30.

Andre Smith finished with 26 points and 15 rebounds for Karsiyaka, although he made just four of nine at the charity stripe.

Black snapped a 64-64 tie with a jump shot and Ralph Biggs extended the lead with a tap-in off his own missed jumper with 6:12 to play.

Karsiyaka's David Holston later closed the gap to 69-67 on a three-ball but Antwerp's Darnell Wilson scored, and Black then poured in four straight points for a 75-67 Giants advantage.

A three-point play by Karsiyaka's Alper Saruhan reduced the arrears to 75-72 with 3:07 to go, but Black answered with a jumper for Antwerp and the home side got no closer than four over the last 2:36.

Quotes Pinar Karsiyaka vs. Antwerp Giants

After giving a break both to national league and EuroChallenge, we were also out of final 8 in Turkish cup, my team got away of game rhythm. We played the first half quite well, but could not perfprm the same in the second. We had an adventage, but we could not use it exactly. Now the group is getting more confused."

Player Ahmet Erdoğan, Pınar Karşıyaka:
"Only qualifying from this group is not our goal, our goal is to take the first place. We lost today maybe, but still we have two more games. From tomorrow we will start to think about the Efes Pilsen game on Saturday. We apolegise to our Fans, but I believe we will cover it on saturday."

Coach Eddy Casteels, Antwrp Giants:
"When we were coming here, we knew that it was our last chance. Now we are looking forward for the next 2 games in the group. I m proud of my players today about winning a great game against to one of the top teams in the Turkish League.

Player Timothy Black for Antwerp Giants:
After going 0-3 we won an important game. Maybe one win is not enough but we have will for the future. That was a very hard and tough game, we are happy to win at the end.