Armenian women’s basketball club Hatis beat Turkish Besiktas 78-74 in Yerevan Thursday in the sixth and last round of European Cup Group F qualification. The victory secured second place for the Yerevan team (with nine points) and a berth in the playoffs. Besiktas also have nine points, but because of the scored/conceded points difference and two defeats from Hatis (both at home and away) the Istanbul team are third. Sony Athinaikos (Athens, Greece) held on to the top spot in the group.

The Thursday game again took place in a full Mika Gymnasium. Hatis took an early lead and held on to survive a late surge by Besiktas.

Serbian captain Bojana Vulic, and Jamaica’s Maurita Reid led Hatis in scoring with 23 and 22, respectively. Reid’s performance gave her a 6-game average of 19 to lead in Hatis scoring and placing her 10th in the league.

Hatis head coach Gia Ghazanchyan said at a press conference after the game that this victory belongs to the whole of Armenia. “I’d like to point out separately the support of the fans. This is just incredible. We had an extra player in our team. Given the huge support from the stands, there were six of us playing against a five-member opponent,” said Ghazanchyan.

After the game, the Hatis players showed their special appreciation of the fan support by sending air kisses to an ecstatic crowd.

Besiktas head coach Aziz Akkaya thanked the Armenian side for what he described as a warm reception given to them in Yerevan.

“We played in the Euro League last year, but we didn’t see such full stands at the games. We’ve seen such a full crowd at the Yerevan game tonight, which had its role in the Hatis win. It is the first time we are in Armenia and I must say that everything has been organized excellently,” said the Turkish coach. “Hatis is a very good team and may have good results in the future, but there are a lot of strong sides in Europe and it will be much more difficult to play against them.”

The next opponent of Hatis in the 1/16 finals is Nadezhda from Orenburg Russia, the top finisher in their qualifying group.

The first leg of the 1/16 finals encounter between the Armenian and Russian teams is scheduled to be staged in Yerevan, on January 7.