By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce BEKO survived a big test in Istanbul and got the 66-63 win over Crvena Zvezda.
With the two teams being scoreless almost for two minutes, Nikola Kalinic made a big shot with 40 seconds left in the game to give a three-point advantage to the hosts (66-63), which proved to be also the final score. Stratos Perperoglou had the chance to send the game to overtime, but he missed the last shot of the game.
Fenerbahce survived despite missing Kostas Sloukas and James Nunnally and with a 13-14 climbed to the seventh spot of the standings, just one win behind Panathinaikos (14-13). Sloukas will also miss the upcoming game against Khimki Moscow Region, while Nunnally is considered questionable.
The hosts finished the first half with a four-point advantage (41-37), but thanks to a 10-2 run at the start of the second half, Zvezda got a 47-43 lead with Lorenzo Brown scoring six points and dishing one assist in this run.
However, Fenerbahce tied the score at 51 at the end of the third quarter, and everything was decided in the end.
It was an ugly game with Kalinic being the top scorer of the winners with just 10 points. Derrick Williams added nine points and six rebounds, more than enough, considering the fact that the second-half score was only 26-25 in favor of the guests.
The duo of Brown and Kevin Punter scored 14 points each for Zvezda who dropped to a 10-17 record.
Andrija Gavrilovic served as a head coach for the guests in this game, due to coach Dragan Sakota being ill.
“Very difficult game”
At this part of the season, the point is to get wins and Fenerbahce coach Zeljko Obradovic didn’t deny it: “It is a very difficult game, it was decided in the last seconds. Crvena Zvezda played really, really good in the second half. I believe we lost a lot of opportunities in the first half to lead by a bigger difference, but they showed one more time they are a really good team. Khimki is a different team, they have a very good roster and are able to score 90 or more points easily, so the first thing will be to play good defense against them.”
“I think that our mishaps early in the seasons kind of helped us get this victory today,” added Williams. “This game proves we don’t need to score a bunch of points to win. And we got it done. At the end of the day, the games are coming to an end soon and every win matters more and more as the season goes on. This an important win for us, for our team, for our fans, and we are right where we want to be”.
Photo credit: EuroLeague