Yakup Sekizkök: “We were unable to stay with the unit we wanted on the court because of the fouls and injuries…”

Defeating Banvit team 81-72 in the playoff quarterfinals match of Tahincioğlu Basketball Super League, Anadolu Efes head coach Ergin Ataman was disqualified because of the two technical fouls that were called during the game. Our assistant coach Yakup Sekizkök shared his thoughts at the post-game conference:

"We knew this game was going to be a tough one. We know the Banvit team very well. They are may be the best team of the second half of the league. As we were aware of that fact, we prepared very well returning from the final four and prepared our players to the condition of the match. I think this is the reason that we’ve won in the final quarter and came back. There isn’t a lot to say technically and tactically since we weren’t on the court with the unit we’ve wanted to be because of the fouls and injuries. The extra effort Bryant Dunston, Adrien Moerman, and Onuralp Bitim put on and the great directing of Krunoslav Simon and Doğuş Balbay helped our team for the come-back. Banvit never gave up but they failed to turn the outside shots into points and we’ve taken the risk of staying inside, though sicne they didn’t turn the outside shots into points they were ineffective with their game. This game was a very good test for us, we’ve seen that all of our players were ready. I hope that Micic and Buğrahan will join us as soon as possible. Onuralp’s contribution made us very happy as well.”

Our player Onuralp Bitim also stated his thoughts at the press conference: “This game was head-to-head and tough. This was exactly what we were expecting from the match, though, the regular season is over. We know that every match is a fight. We didn't begin the match as we wanted to, we failed to turn the shots into points. We’ve put on our energy later on, and shown what we can do on defense. No matter what we’ve won the match with our energy even though it wasn’t our best day. We want to prepare well for the next matches and reach our goal step by step.”

Tags:
  • Onuralp Bitim
  • Ergin Ataman
  • Yakup Sekizkök