FC Porto was unable to repeat the efficiency of the 1st leg at Dragão Arena and allowed Bahcesehir College to play in transition and with ease in three-point shots. It was a disaster. (updated news)
No pity, no mercy. This was how the 2nd leg of the quarter-finals of the European Cup went, played at the Ulker Sports and Event Hall, in Istanbul, where FC Porto were crushed by the Turks from Bahcesehir College 88-52 (31-14, 22- 14, 18-16, 17-8) in a match in which they never led and the only equality came at 6-6. A result that shattered the dream of reaching the semi-final, a goal never achieved by a Portuguese club.
After the shine in the 1st leg played a week earlier, FC Porto knew that to reach the semi-finals they had an advantage in their favor and were fulfilling a maximum that they could not fail in the remaining 40m.
The advantage: the difference of ten that he had achieved at Dragão Arena. The maxim: don’t make mistakes. Especially in defense, in order to try to stop the game in transition that the Turks, winners of the competition in 2022, like so much, as well as reducing the chance of them launching beyond the line of three. Another of the strengths of an opponent against whom the Dragons had interrupted a cycle of 11 victories. They failed at everything.
The blue and whites entered with little force, blinked and… when they reopened their eyes, it was disaster. They reduced the score from 6-2 after 2 minutes to 6-6 thanks to a triple from Cleveland Melvin (6 pts, 5 res), the biggest star of the first match, with the right to a free throw. And then they took a bath.
The hosts, highlighted by Tony Taylor (4 res, 5 ass) with 12 of his 15 points until halftime (53-28), and Tyler Cavanaugh (6 res), with 12 of 16, were the main protagonists of the lack of effectiveness from the Portuguese team that started with a devastating 17-0 (23-6) partial that led to 22-2 (28-8), still with 2.14m to play in the opening quarter. The one-off advantage that had taken so much effort to secure vanished at 4.28m (17-6). And the two points achieved by FC Porto were from the free throw line, by Aaron Harrison (11 pts, 4 res).
The 2nd period was no better, as Bahcesehir, who also overtook Sporting in the group stage, once again dried out Fernando Sá’s team in another sequence that led to the first gap of 25 points. When the first half ended, the Turks recorded 6/8 in triples (75%) and 12/18 in 2-pointers (66.67%), taking advantage of the visitors’ 14 fouls to add another 11 points (11/15) free throw.
This is without counting the 15 points obtained in counterattacks, compared to zero from FC Porto. Taking into account that in the attempt to answer in triples, the blues and whites had 4/14 and 5/14 in throw, out of 2… the task seemed herculean for the 2nd part.
And it was. The dragons, who only had Phil Fayne (10 pts, 4 res) accompanying Harisson among those who reached ten points – Melvin had long since disappeared in combat -, never showed solutions and the ability to, at least, make the opponent fear the turnaround.
Especially because in the final quarter the difference increased to three dozen, having reached a maximum of 38 points (86-48) with just over 2 to go. A dream that seemed beautiful and possible to come true had turned into a nightmare.
In the end, coach Fernando Sá, speaking to the club’s website, focused his speech on the team’s journey to the quarter-finals for the second consecutive season: «We only feel the way we are feeling because we were dreaming and working so that we could, once again, make history in European competitions, something we had already done by winning the first game. We reached the quarter-finals, like last season, but there is much more quality in this year’s edition. We were fighting against huge differences and we only managed to get here because we were always overcoming ourselves. Congratulations to the entire team, as I am very proud to be part of it.”
