Galatasaray women's basketball team has made it to the EuroCup Women final despite a 57-55 defeat against Spain's Perfumerias Avenida in the second leg semifinal Wednesday.
Regardless of the loss, Galatasaray managed to oust their opponent on aggregate, winning the first match in Istanbul by seven points, 69-62.
For Galatasaray, Allie Quigley scored a game-high 19 points while Gintare Petronyte added 10 points and five assists.
For Perfumerias Avenida, Silvia Dominguez and Angelica Robinson's both grabbed 10 points and three rebounds, but their performances were not enough.
The game's turning point was 57-51 to Avenida with less than 90 seconds remaining and the locals inside Pabellon Wurzburg could sense the turnaround was within grasp.
As the ball fell to Silvia Dominguez, she had a wide-open triple to extend the advantage and put the hosts up in the tie which would have struck a significant mental blow.
However, it rimmed out and Avenida never scored again as Galatasaray sealed the deal from the free-throw line.
The Spanish side did the job defensively, but four-of-22 from downtown was just not good enough to overhaul the damage from the first leg and they only got to the foul line 10 times in the game. Meanwhile, Galatasaray did a great job to edge the battle on the glass.
Even if she was clearly not in top shooting form, Allie Quigley still delivered a game-high 24 points and was a difference-maker in a low scoring contest. Olivia Epoupa had another eventful outing with nine points, eight boards and five steals.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game and it really was. I think we prepared our game really good and executed the game plan perfectly. Now, our goal is to win EuroCup Women. If you believe in your coach and teammates, the victory is easier," the duo said.
Turkish women's basketball has been doing great in recent years. Fenerbahçe managed to play in the Final Four in the 2003-04 and 2004-05 Euro Cups and came second in 2005. Beginning from 2006, Fenerbahçe hit the EuroLeague mark in women's basketball.
The Yellow Canaries achieved a historic success to play consecutively five times in the EuroLeague quarterfinals and came in fourth in the 2011-12 season. Their biggest success came in 2012-13 when they came second, losing against Russian giant UMMC Ekaterinburg in the final.
In 2005, Turkish women national team participated in European Championship first time and since then it qualified every European Championship. Turkey advanced to the final in the 2011 European Championship and lost to Russia. In another success story, Turkish women qualified for the Olympics for the first time in 2013 and came fifth in the tournament.
