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A few weeks ago, I found myself staring out of a dark window, into the abyss of the Turkish landscape on a 14 hour bus ride home from a city, until then, I had never heard of. Bandirma, was it’s name. Apparently, that was where the Turkish Basketball Federation decided to have the Women’s Turkish Cup. Not a great choice considering the hoops we had to jump through to get there (the city has no airport). After losing to Galatasaray in the semi-final round, instead of driving to Izmir and flying home, we drove the whole way back to Mersin.

The loss left a bad taste in our mouths. We had beat them by nearly 30 points in the previous match-up during the regular season, so the loss wasn’t expected. We recognized they improved their roster with the addition of Tamika Catchings and Katie Douglas, but we still believed in our ability to win. The loss only stood to motivate us further, however, for our next regular season game that would be against, coincidentally, Gala.

We played Gala in Istanbul and lost by 4 points. If it wasn’t for an extremely slow start, it would have been a different game, but it wasn’t. So now, in a season that started with winning the President’s Cup by handily beating Fenerbahce (Turkey’s Goliath), and only losing 2 regular season games, we have lost 2 games in a row. Not necessarily a big deal, except this is the end of the season, a time we should be peaking for the playoffs.

Now, we’re in the playoffs. We ended up finishing the regular season in 2nd place. We matched up with Besiktas in the first round, which is a shock because they usually finish in the top 3 or 4 in a given season because they, too, are part of the ‘big 3’ in Turkey (including Gala and Fener). Because we swept them during the regular season, we started the 5 game series up 1-0. We swept them in the playoffs, as anticipated and now we are starting the semi-finals.

Again…Galatasaray. Although Fenerbahce proved to be our nemesis over the past 2 seasons and is usually the mountain a team has to climb to reach the Turkish Championship, a new obstacle has emerged. Boasting some of the best WNBA players in Tamika Catchings, Katie Douglas and Sophia Young, Gala has some good Turkish players as well. Respect everyone, fear no one. We respect the players they have on their roster, but of course, fear no one. Our challenge is to grow from the 2 unexpected losses, that started with a disappointing loss in the Turkish Cup. The question is whether we will rise to the occasion, and make the necessary adjustments to defeat our adversary. These next 2 or 3 games will be the biggest of the season.

Mersin set out to win a championship this year, as we were close, but no cigar last year with losing in the finals. Will we accomplish this goal? The answer begins tomorrow. Stay tuned…