BELGRADE, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Serbian basketball champions Red Star outplayed Galatasaray 87-57 for their fourth triumph in the 5th round of the Group A of the Eurocup on Tuesday in Belgrade.
Cheered on by some 6,000 fans at Aleksandar Nikolic hall, Red Star (Crvena Zvezda) took over the lead over the ninth ranked team of the Turkish league in the 3rd minute of the game with a three-pointer from Billy Baron, who was red hot from the perimeter. However, the rest of the team did not follow up and had poor field goal execution, allowing the Turkish team to stay close behind them.
Red Star separated from Galatasaray later in the quarter with shots of Mouhammad Faye and Maik Zirbes, while Baron added another three-pointer for a 6-point lead at 17-11.
The home team kept on expanding the lead in the second quarter, building their 9-0 series which was ended in the 13th minutes with two free-throws for Galatasaray, but Red Star's Statos Perperoglou answered with a three-pointer to create the biggest gap so far - 16 points (31-15) that increased by two points before the halftime (44-26).
Joe Ragland opened the second half with a three pointer, while Galatasaray seemed to lack a solution for play of Baron and Faye's shots. Michael Ojo scored a field goal and a free throw to increase the gap to 22 points (56-34).
The Serbian team managed to achieve several efficient counterattacks, marked by the slam-dunk of Faye for 65-40, but after a time-out Tai Webster scored three-pointer for Galatasaray to catch up.
With a 22-point gap between the two teams at the start of the final quarter, Faye continued with attractive moves under the hoops, as well as in defence. Zirbes increased the gap to 27 after he was fouled in a successful counterattack and scored a free throw (78-51).
Ragland added another three-pointer, while Borisa Simanic increased the lead to 30 (85-55).
Most efficient in the ranks of the winning team was Ragland (21 points, 4 assists) followed by Baron (16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists). Best in the ranks of Galatasaray were Webster with 16 points and Zach Auguste with 14 points.
This is the 4th victory for group leader Red Star in Eurocup, who was defeated so far only once, while Galatasaray's score now is 2-3 and is fighting to preserve 3rd position in the group.
Both teams will play their next matches as guests: Red Star in Germany against Ulm, while Galatasaray will travel to Spain to face Andorra.?
