3 in a row

Driving baseline

Good evening!  I just arrived home from a great mushroom and swiss burger at a local restaurant after our win!  We played a tough team and ended up winning 87-81.  It was a great win for us.  Our record now stands at 6-5 in the league.  We have now won 3 in a row.  We are on a nice streak right now, but we need to continue to have great practices and stay focused.  We had an early game today at 1pm, and there were not many fans there until some 300-400 students came rolling in.  It was great having a little student section.  Felt like I was back at NDSU.  It was a very physical game today.  I have a feeling that I am going to be a bit sore tomorrow morning.  My foot injury doesn't help.  I found out that I have some bad tendinitis on the soft tissue under my foot.  It is very acute and quite painful.  I took some pills before the game which helped ease the pain a bit but I could still feel it.  I am icing as we speak so hopefully that will help a bit.

Finishing a lay-up

I ended in the game with 18 points (4-6 2fg, 2-3 3fg, 4-4 ft), 2 rebounds, and 7 assists.  We had 4 guys in double figures.  Its great when you have multiple guys with double figures, it means that you are moving the ball well and finding the open guy.  Our next game is on Saturday vs Turk Telecom.  It will be another tough game for us.  We need to be mentally ready.  I am looking forward to it because my Dad will be here to watch.  He hasn't seem a game for awhile so it will be nice playing in front of him.  We are really looking forward to having him here over Christmas.


Otherwise not much else going on here.  I highly suggest you check out my wife's website.. amandamosaic.com.  She has changed a couple features on it, and it keeps getting better and better.  She definitely has multiple hidden talents!  Thats all from Turkey!  Have a blessed Wednesday!  God Bless.. 1 Corinthians 3:7-9 

2 in a row

Good Evening from Turkey!  How are you all doing?  The latest here in Turkey is that we came away with our second straight win and our first road win of the season.  We played Olin Edrine last night and won 76-70.  It was a wonderful win for us.  Edrine is a tough place to play.  They have some great and enthusiastic fans.  Actually, in the first quarter the refs had to leave the floor because the fans were making threatening comments to them.  Security and cops had to sit in front of the fans to make sure they didn't cause any more trouble.  The refs were back in their locker room for about 10 minutes and then came back out and the game resumed.  It was close throughout the entire game.  I stepped up to the free throw line with 17 secs to go (we were up by 2) and made both free throws to make it a two possession game and basically seal the game for us.  I ended the game with 7 points (1-5 2fg, 1-3 3fg, 2-2 ft) 5 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1 steal in 26 minutes of play.  We play again on Wednesdays vs a tough Erdemir team.  Then we play again on Saturday.  I am looking forward to a week full of games.  Three games in a week is awesome!

Some other news from Turkey, I had an X-Ray on my foot last night.  Not exactly sure what the problem is.  I have tremendous acute pain at the bottom of my right foot.  I am thinking it is a bone bruise but I am not sure.  I will find out from the Dr. tomorrow.  More importantly, I ask that you pray for the families who were affected by that terrible event out in CT.  The more prayers the better.  My heart absolutely broke when I heard about the news.  Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.  I hope that you all have a wonderful Sunday afternoon and night.  We are going to grill some steak and watch some football!  God Bless.... Mark 10:13-16

Big Win

Calling a play

Good evening!!  I am going to jump right into things for you.  We won a huge game last night 86-85 vs Efes.  It was a great win for our club.  If we were to lose that game we would have dropped to 13th place in the league.  Instead, we are tied for 7th with 3 other teams.  Remember the top 8 teams at the end of the year go to the playoffs.

We started out extremely slow in the 1st quarter and found ourselves down by 18 points.  We gradually fought our way back and were down only 7 points at half.  In the 2nd half we buckled down on defense and had some wonderful offensive positions.  We found ourselves up 4 points with a minute to play.  Then, Efes stopped us on our next offensive possession.  They had the ball with 30 some secs to go and down 2 points.  They missed a shot, but got an offensive rebound.  With 10 seconds remaining it was Jordan Farmar and myself one on one at the top.  He made a strong right handed drive,  I was riding his hip when one of our big men stepped up and committed a blocking foul with .9 secs left.  He made the first shot, Efes down 1.  He missed the 2nd free throw and that is the ball game folks.  It was a great comeback win for us.  I ended the game with 4 points (1-3 2fg, 0-2 3fg, 2-4 ft), 8 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal.  It puts us at 4-5 in the league.  Our next game is on the road vs. Olin Edrine.  They have a record of 3-6.  It will be a tough match for us on the road.  We play again Saturday.

One on one vs Farmar

One on one vs Farmar

Other than that not much else going on here.  Congrats to the NDSU football team for winning their quarterfinal game and good luck in the semis.  Also,  NDSU mens hoops team is playing the gophers tonight.  Upset?  I hope everyone is bundling up back home.  I hear that the weather is crazy right now.  Have a wonderful Tuesday night!  God Bless...
Isaiah 40:8

Dropped another close one

Hey everyone!  I wanted to write you quick before I head to practice this afternoon.  Our last game we played Aliaga in Izmir, Turkey and we lost 70-68.  It was an extremely physical game.  Mentally and physically draining!  We made some significant improvements on defense and held the other team to just 70 points.  Our problem this game was no one could make an outside jumper.  We shot a terrible 22% from 3pt.  That was basically the difference in the game.  We are currently tied for 7th at 3-5 with 4 other teams.  Our next game is against Efes.  Efes is one of the powerhouse teams here in Turkey.  We play them at home, and hopefully we can get a packed house for the game.  Last game I had 9 points (2-6 2fg, 1-5 3fg, 2-2 ft), 5 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal.  Hopefully we can try and pick up a win against Efes on Monday.

Sorry this is so short I have to jet to practice.  Everything else is going great here in Turkey.  We, I mean my wife put up our Christmas tree the other day and it looks AWESOME!  We are definitely in the Christmas spirit already over here!  Like I mentioned before my dad is coming over later in Dec and we are extremely stoked about it.  Looking forward to having some family here over Christmas.  Have a wonderful afternoon and God Bless.. Romans 12: 3-8  

Ps-  You gotta check our my wife's new post she put on her website!  It is fantastic!! www.amandamosaic.com !!!

Tough Loss

Offense

Good afternoon from Turkey!  I am waiting to go to our second practice today so I thought I would give you an update on how our last game went.  We suffered a tough 89-93 loss to Antalya (who was in last place in the league) at home.  We were ahead the entire game until the 4th quarter again.  In our last 2 losses both games we have lost the 4th and final quarter.  We definitely didn't play a very good game but it came down to the last couple minutes of regulation (I was on the bench), and they had a couple offensive rebounds and made a couple tough shots that made the difference in the end.  Both teams were playing hard but I gotta give credit to Antalya for their execution offensively as well as defensively.  They played a solid game, changing up defenses, playing a great pick and roll game and keeping us on our heels.  I ended the game with 10 points (2-4 2fg, 2-6 3fg), 3 assists, and 1 rebound.  It is the second game in a row that I haven't been to the FT line.  Thats quite an impressive stat considering I used to live at the FT (guess I gotta be more aggressive).  Our record stands at 3-4 in the league tied for 7th out of 16.

Driving to the bucket

Our next game is against Aliaga on the road out in Izmir, Turkey.  We need a solid week of practice to get better and work on the things that we struggle with.  I am looking forward to getting back in the gym and competing.  Our next game is on Sunday,  Dec. 2nd.  I can't believe it is almost December already, where has this year gone.  That is all the news from Turkey.  I hope you all were safe during Black Friday shopping and I hope you had a wonderful time with you family members over Thanksgiving! Have an amazing day!  God Bless!  Titus 2:11

3-3

Hey everyone!  Sorry I haven't updated my blog recently.  I haven't really thought about my blog lately especially when we have family visiting.  AJ's folks visited us for 10 days and we all had a wonderful time!  You need to check out AJ's website www.amandamosaic.com for more details on their visit.

We have played two games since I last updated the blog.  The first game we played was 2 weeks ago and we came away with a 84-60 win over Hacettepe.  We played a great team game, coming away with 19 assists as a team.  We had 5 guys in double figures.  Ranging from 10 point to 18 points.  I had 10 points (3-7 2fg, 1-2 3fg, 1-2 ft), 4 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal.  It was a great game for us to win since both teams where tied with a 2-2 record.  After that win our record stood at 3-2 in the league.

Our next game we played last Saturday was against Galatasaray up in Istanbul.  They are the only team that was unbeaten in the league, AND they are still the only team unbeaten in the league.  We got beat 90-66.  It was a rough game for us offensively and defensively.  We only had 3 guys in double figures. I ended the game with 3 points (0-2 2fg, 1-3 3fg,) 2 assists, and 1 rebound.  Even though we were struggling on offense and defense we still were only down 6 points going into the 4th quarter.  However they turned it up a notch and ran away with a convincing win.  We turned the ball over multiple times and they were forcing us into tough shots which lead to quick transition baskets for them.  Our record now stands at 3-3 and tied for 7th place in the league.

We were extremely happy and excited having AJ's parents over visiting us for 10 days.  It was great to see some family and enjoy the great company.  We are looking forward to my dad coming over during his Christmas break.  It will be great seeing more family and having more company during the holiday season!  Thats about all for now.  I have to run and get the door, the heating man is here to turn on our heat for the winter... BURRRR!!! Have a wonderful day! God Bless!  Psalm 62:8

Demolished

Hello!  Great afternoon to be alive and well :)!  I hope you all are having a great day.  I am excited to announce the arrival of the in-laws (Dave and Shayla) on Thursday!  AJ's parents are coming to Turkey to visit and we can't wait to see them.  We are looking forward to showing them around Ankara as well as other parts of Turkey.

Driving to the bucket

On some basketball news, we absolutely got destroyed in our game on Saturday.  We played a very talented and deep Banvit team.  We ended up losing 112-76.  We started off the game great.  After the first quarter it was 20-20.  Then all of a sudden we were down 20 points at half.  They beat us in every aspect of the game (transition, hustle, effort, shooting, defense,  offense, etc).  It was a rough game after the first quarter.  We sat down and looked at film yesterday on our mistakes and hopefully we can improve those for the next game.  To be honest it was a flat out ugly game on our part and I really can't say much more about it!  This week we need work hard and focus on our next opponent Hacettepe.  Our record stands at 2-2 in the league tied with 5 teams, Hacettepe being one of them.

Some stats from the last game.  Vanja lead the way for all scores with 15 points (4-6 2fg, 2-4 3fg, 1-2 ft), 5 rebounds.  Jovo had 13 points (5-10 2fg, 3-4 ft), 3 rebounds.  Nedim had 11 points (5-8 2fg, 1-3 ft), 6 rebounds.  Caner (our back up 2-3 man) had 12 points (6-8 2fg, 0-3 3fg), 2 rebounds.  Our starting 2-3 man Kirk Penney didn't play because of an Achilles injury.  I had 9 points (2-3 2fg, 1-2 3fg, 2-2 ft), 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals.  Hopefully this weekend we can have a better effort and outcome.  I don't want to disappoint the in-laws while they are watching ;)!

That is all the updates from Ankara Turkey.  I see the Bison basketball just squeaked by the Dragons of Moorhead again with an OT win (wiping the sweat off the brow) in exhibition play.  I am looking forward to following their season this year..GO BISON!  Time to relax before practice number 2 of the day.  I hope you all have a wonderful and safe Tuesday.  Don't forget to be thankful and count your blessings today!  God Bless... 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11