In the Turkish Insurance Basketball Super League, Pınar Karşıyaka beat Galatasaray NEF by 16 points in the first division with McCollum, the former player of his opponent, and made it 3 out of 3 in the league and in Europe with its renewed squad.
Starting the season in the league by beating Manisa Metropolitan Belediyespor 79-76 and beating Greek team AEK 91-88 in the first match they played in the FIBA Champions League Group B without their supporters due to his suspension, Karşıyaka made a great comeback despite losing a different situation on the road to Galatasaray. signed the return. Pınar Karşıyaka, who won the Eurocup in 2016 with Galatasaray in the match, which was the scene of great contention outside the first quarter, beat the MVP guard Erick McCollum 72-70 with a 3-point fielder on one leg with 2.4 seconds left, and started the season great. Guard McCollum, who was the architect of the victory with 29 points in the AEK match, brought the second consecutive win in front of his old team.
Stating that they won much more than a win, Coach Ufuk Sarıca stated that the score was always very close throughout the match, and said, “This is also evident from the final score. In the end, Galatasaray could have been the winner, too. We finished by winning. This is a really important win for us. It’s more than just a win. With so many new players, sometimes we have problems in the matches played against the fans because we don’t really know each other yet. It’s really extraordinary to come back and turn this match after falling 15 points. We have made mistakes, but we are already working to improve them. We will return to İzmir with a very valuable win from here. We will play away in the Champions League during the week, I hope we will return from there with an away win. It was important for us to get such a win. Congratulations to my whole team” said.