By Stefan Djordjevic / info@eurohoops.net
Khimki Moscow put on a late comeback effort but Fenerbahce BEKO responded with a run of its own to hold them off and grab an 83-71 home win in Round 7 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Jarrell Eddie led the way with 16 points on 4-6 from deep while making a number of crucial shots for his squad’s win.
Dyshawn Pierre scored 16 as well while Ahmet Duverioglu and Lorenzo Brown added 11 each. Brown also dished eight assists and stole the ball four times.
Pierre pointed to defense as the key factor: “I think it came from my aggressiveness on defense. We caused a lot of deflections and turnovers, which led to easy points. We just did a good job. My mentality was just taking what was open and making sure that I stayed aggressive and physical. Just being ready, that was about it.”
Fener got the win but also lost Nando De Colo in the process. The French guard exited the game after three minutes due to what seems to be a calf injury.
Nando De Colo is injured and will not be able to return for Fenerbahce in the game against Khimki https://t.co/ATJdzFopKc
— Eurohoops (@Eurohoopsnet) November 6, 2020
“We all know how much Nando [De Colo] means to our team and to the squad. Missing Nando, especially in the beginning of the game, wasn’t easy. Good teams find a way to win the game and I think we played well enough to deserve to win this game. Still, it upsets me because the energy was there, the effort was there, we really played hard, but we made some mistakes and had some breakdowns. I think we are better than that. Rebounding was our Achilles heel again. We have to rebound, making smarter decisions. That’s something in which we have to do a better job as the season goes on,” coach Igor Kokoskov said after the match.
For Khimki, Jordan Mickey logged 19 points and seven rebounds followed by Jonas Jerebko with 12 and Greg Monroe with 11 points. Alexey Shved had ten points, nine assists and six boards. But also six of his team’s 19 turnovers which were the main reason for Khimki’s downfall.
Although Fenerbahce had everything under control in front of the final ten minutes (65-55), Khimki didn’t go down easy. The Russians cut the gap to two points (72-20) but that was as far as they could go. Ulanovas and Eddie made an 8-0 run for the hosts with the latter banking two straight threes to seal the deal.