Dragons Rally To Knock Out Karsiyaka

Artland Dragons came back in the second half to defeat Pinar Karsiyaka 95-88, ending the Turkish team's hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals of the EuroChallenge and allowing Triumph Lyubertsy through.

After Triumph's win over Antwerp earlier, Karsiyaka knew they needed a win and began brightly as back-to-back three-pointers from Ilkan Karaman propelled them into a 27-15 lead late in the first quarter.

Another three from Goran Ikonic made it 30-20 early in the second period, but it soon began to crumble as an 11-2 run brought Artland back to within a point on Johannes Strasser's jump-shot a little over a minute later.

Artland moved ahead, 40-38, on a three-pointer from Darren Fenn and the teams continued to trade blows in a game that stayed close into the fourth quarter.

Artland began to find some breathing space early in the final stanza as a Brandon Thomas three-pointer made it 82-76 with 7:58 to go and they were up by 12, 91-79, on Adam Hess' lay-up with 2:19 to go.

Fenn split a pair of free throws to leave them 95-84 up with 43 seconds to go, and although Chaisson Allen had the final two baskets for Karsiyaka it was too late.

Thomas led Artland with 27 points, while Nathan Peavy had 18, Hess 17 and Fenn 12.
Jovo Stanojevic led Karsiyaka with 21 points while Karaman had 18 and 16 rebounds.

Ikonic finished with 16 points, Birkan Batuk had 13 and Mire Chatman added 12, nine rebounds and seven assists.

Turnovers proved key as Artland scored 23 points from them to Karsiyaka's five.

Quotes Artland Dragons vs. Pinar Karsiyaka

Pinar Karsiyaka Head Coach Hakan Demir
"Congrats to the Dragons. They play a strong season especially in the EuroChallenge. I wish them good luck for the quarterfinals."

Artland Dragons Head Coach Stefan Koch
"We are very happy that we came back after we were struggling the past games, especially offensively. It was a good performance, because we were missing two of our important players, Bryan Bailey and Anthony Hilliard. We made 17 threes today, which is huge. We knew it would be a tough game, we had a lot of respect for Izmir. We got better on defense in the second half, but there are still some things we have to talk about. We are the only German team that advanced to the quarterfinals, and we are sorry for Bonn and Oldenburg, but it shows even more how much this is worth. Now we have to play the strongest team in the competition, Besiktas, which has a Euroleague roster. But it's a great challenge and we have home court advantage. So we will try to knock them out."

Pinar Karsiyaka player Ilkan Karaman
"There is not a lot to say. We fought hard, but that was not enough. In the end of the game they were leading and made some easy shots. Now we have to focus on our national league and try the best we can."

Artland Dragons player Brandon Thomas
"This was a good team win. We bounced back from some bad games and made it back on track, because we stayed focussed in practice. That we knocked down some shots today helped of course. There will still be some things on defense that will be addressed. But we played good team basketball today."