Gala go down to hot Barca

Galatasaray were unable to undo a miserable second quarter as they went down 82-70 away at Spanish giants Barcelona on Thursday.

The Istanbul side were otherwise more than a match for Barcelona, who were red-hot from behind the 3-point line all game, shooting at a 50 percent clip. Tomas Satoransky, not normally known as a shooter, hit three of his five 3-point attempts as he led Barcelona to the win that gives them a 4-3 record while Galatasaray slip to 2-5, perilously close to elimination.

Gala coach Ergin Ataman put the loss down to a fitness disparity between the two teams while acknowledging that the second quarter, which Barcelona won 30-19, gave them too big a mountain to climb.

"I think that we played correct basketball tonight," said Ataman. "We started the game playing at our tempo and didn't let Barcelona run too much in the first quarter. We stayed in the game and rallied to a one-basket difference in the fourth quarter. Our big mistake was in the second quarter. We allowed Barcelona to find open 3-point shots on fast breaks and that made the difference in the game. We allowed 30 points in the second quarter. We started to play better defense in the fourth quarter and played our regular basketball. We managed to return to the game on 3-point shots, but physically, Barcelona was stronger than us, and Vlado Micov and Carlos Arroyo came back from injuries [tonight as well]. They didn't play the last two games and were not ready to give us their regular basketball.

Despite being obviously hurt by the loss, Ataman wasn't too proud to give full credit to the home side.

"Of course, congratulations to FC Barcelona because they shot really well from 3-point range, scoring 16 on 50 percent shooting, which is really very good," said the Turkish coach. "Especially Satoransky, who is not a three-point shooter, but hit very important shots late in the game."

The defeat ends a difficult week for Galatasaray, who started the week by losing to bottom-of-the-table Edirne in the Turkish basketball league before being embroiled in controversy after Ataman admitted to slapping a player, claiming it was his right as a coach to use force as a disciplinary measure.

In the end, there is only so much a team can do when Barcelona's sharp shooters are firing. Satoransky finished with 17 points, one behind Erceg Zoran who had a game-high 18 points, while Bostjan Nachbar had 15 points. Carlos Arroyo was still clearly unfit as he only played 15 minutes, going scoreless in his time on the court.

Sinan Guler, Gala's star point guard and leader, believed that in the end Barcelona simply executed better during the crucial moments of the game.

"Our main problem, I think, was the second quarter, in which they scored 30 points against us," said Guler. "We agreed at halftime that if we were aggressive, we could return to the game. We made some shots throughout the second half. We missed those shots in the final minutes and it is hard to beat Barcelona at Palau Blaugrana. As a team, we gave everything."

Justin Doellman said after the game that every game in the Top 16 from now on is like a final for Barcelona after they started off the campaign at a surprisingly slow rate, going 3-3 after six games.

"It was a very important win for us, especially here at home," said Doellman. "We have to win all our home games and try to get a couple on the road. We played really well on defense in the fourth quarter and were able to open up the game a little bit. They came back late in the third quarter and cut it to 3 points, but we responded well to get a couple of easy baskets, a couple of stops and pull away. The Top 16 has been great – a little ups and downs, but we are happy with the first leg. Now, we have ALBA Berlin coming here, [and] it will be interesting."