Hawkins Wins It Late For Besiktas

Mehmet Yagmur and Besiktas Milangaz came up with a narrow read in Tblisi

Besiktas Milangaz completed a two-game sweep of Armia on Tuesday to clinch first place in EuroChallenge Group B.

David Hawkins hit a jump shot one second before the end to lift Besiktas to a 77-75 win in Tbilisi.

Armia were able to get the ball to recent signing Matthew Freije before time expired but his three-pointer was off target.

The Turkish club improved to 5-0 and Armia fell to 3-2.

Should ZZ Leiden prevail in their game against BG Göttingen Wednesday, the Dutch side will host a decisive clash with Armia next week to determine the second-place team in Group B.

Armia won their encounter on November 22, 74-71, so Leiden would be aiming for a win of four points or more to claim second spot.

Jeremy Richardson nearly lifted Armia to victory.

After Hawkins' two free-throws with 1:16 remaining, Richardson caught a pass from new Armia guard Ben Woodside and drilled a jump shot to knot the game at 73-73.

Hawkins dunked with 40 seconds to go to put the visitors back in front, only for Richardson, after an Armia timeout, to reply with a jumper.

Besiktas ran the clock down to 10 seconds and then called a timeout.

When play resumed, Hawkins got the ball in his hands and hit the game-winning shot.

Besiktas outscored Armia 27-19 in the last quarter.

The EuroChallenge Player of the Week in the last round, Ersin Dagli, will contend for that honor again as he had 18 points and 13 rebounds for Besiktas.

Hawkins finished with 17 points and Serhat Cetin 16.

Zoran Erceg also had a strong game with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists for Besiktas.

His biggest shot came with 1:45 to go, a three-ball that tied the contest at 71-71.

Joakim Kjellbom scored 17 points and corralled 13 rebounds for Armia, and Will Thomas had 15 points and eight boards.

Richardson also had 15 points and Woodside 13, along with seven assists.

Quotes Armia vs. Besiktas Milangaz

Armia head coach Kote Tugushi:
"Today's match turned out to be very dramatic. Unfortunately, we were defeated by our rival team. We couldn't manage to take the advantage we could use on our own ground. We should complete the dispute whether we move to the next stage or not. First of all, I want to express my gratitude to our fans that were supporting our team until the end of the match. I want to express my personal gratitude to my team. Out players showed really a good game. Personally, I am very satisfied of this match. We do our best to gain the right for the next round in the Netherlands."

Armia player Anatoli Boisa:
"I would like to thank our fans who attended the match and supported us during the whole game. The game turned out to be very tense and spectacular. Unfortunately, we were beaten by our rivals in the very last second of the game. As a result, we lost the match. But all this is gone now. We are already thinking about the future match. By all means, we have to gain victory in the Netherlands in order to move to the next stage."

Armia player Benjamin Woodside:
"It was a great atmosphere tonight. I really like the team. My teammates are great people and the fans are amazing. I really enjoyed the match for my first game. I think we can compete with everyone and we've got to try to get another win in the EuroChallenge and hopefully we can move on."

Besiktas head coach Ergin Ataman:
"For us it was a very good game. Unfortunately, we miss two of our main players that played in Istanbul. We also missed Marcelus Kemp but we got success with the control of the game all the time. First, when I came here we wanted to keep the point difference but we played a good game. During the last minutes we got more attention and won the game. It was a surprise for me to win this game because I thought that we could lose the match by 7-10 points today."

Besiktas player Zoran Erceg:
"We knew that it was a tough game to win. We came here with some problems because we missed some players. We had good team work today and won at the end. I want to congratulate my guys and the staff. We have one more game but it was a very important match because now we are on the first place in the group".