Galatasaray secure head-to-head over Holon, go top of Group C

ISTANBUL (Turkey) - Galatasaray Nef picked up a crucial 88-75 win against Hapoel Atsmon Holon to claim the head-to-head tiebreaker in the race for first place in Group C, in front of their always passionate home fans inside the Sinan Ernan Dome.

Galatasaray have now won each of their last five home games played in the Basketball Champions League Regular Season and they have always managed to score more than 80 points in their eight home games during the BCL regular season.

Turning point: Dylan Ennis could barely miss in the first quarter, scoring 14 points and knocking down four three-pointers to help Galatasaray get out to a 17-11 lead, but Holon went on a 7-0 run at the end of the quarter to grab a one-point lead.

Galatasaray fought back and outscored Holon 25-20 in the second quarter, this time being led by Sadik Kabaca who put up 9 points in the quarter. There was very little separation between the two teams, as the game was played within six points through three quarters, until the fourth quarter, where Galatasaray finally separated themselves and opened up a lead as big as 13 points.

Game heroes: Ennis started the game with a bang with his 14 points in the first quarter and he finished with a bang, connecting on a deep three to put an exclamation point on the game. The 30-year-old finished with a game-high 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting from three-point and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.

Angelo Caloiaro was also a factor off the bench and helped Galatasaray pull away, as he recorded an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double, scoring half of his points in the final quarter.

Stats don't lie: Galatasaray were efficient shooting the ball from the field, going 46.9 percent, while Holon only were able to get 39.1 percent of their shots to fall. Galatasaray's bench was also more effective, as they outscored Holon's bench 33-21 with Caloiaro scoring 18 of them.

Bottom line: Galatasaray are now 3-1 in Group C and the Turkish club will host Filou Oostende in their next game on Tuesday December 6. Holon, meanwhile, fall to 3-1 in the group as well and were led in defeat by Erick Green who finished with 15 points, 12 of them coming in the first half.

The Israeli club will host Legia Warszawa in their next game on Tuesday December 6. Galatasaray lost the first head-to-head meeting to Holon by nine points (82-73), so their 13-point victory was enough to give them the point differential and the tiebreak over Holon if the teams end up tied at the end of group play.

They said:

"We were up and down a little bit too much. First half, we had too many lulls in our offense and defense. We played some great basketball for like 30 minutes. Obviously, we were better longer than we were not so good." - Angelo Caloiaro, Galatasaray Nef

"This was a very important win for us against a great opponent. We still got two important games to play. It's a long way still, but we had a good performance. We kept the difference. We had a lot of ups and downs that we need to work on. At the same time, this is normal because we still are changing as a team in our roster. We still need to learn each other. We got guys that we just signed, guys coming back from injuries, so this creates some inconsistency in our game, but other than that, I'm satisfied with how the gameplan was executed." - Andreas Pistiolis, head coach Galatasaray Nef

"We lost the point difference. This is a big disappointment, but we have two more games now to win, to play like last season, the Play-In. We couldn't stop their three-point. We need to be better on defense." - Frederic Bourdillon, Hapoel Atsmon Holon

"We didn't do the job that we came to do. The target was to win the game and secondly, if we are not winning, to lose under nine to also give us the chance to be in first place. We didn't do both of the jobs. First quarter and third quarter it was good quarters for us that we executed, played defense and we made some stops. Unfortunately at the end, the game went to Galatasaray and the team doing the right things in the end win the game." - Guy Goodes, head coach Hapoel Atsmon Holon