By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce Beko came to the game against Olympiacos with just one win in the last eight games and following a series of blowout losses and needed a seriously strong reaction after several disappointing performances.
The Turkish team did exactly that, putting a lot of effort on the court to defeat Olympiacos 84 – 77 and improve its record to 6-10 while welcoming Marko Guduric (four points in 20:47 minutes) back in its ranks.
Jan Vesely had 17 points on perfect (8-8 2-pointers) shooting plus five assists and four rebounds in one of his best games this season for Fenerbahce. He also delivered a key block on a 3-point attempt by Vassilis Spanoulis with eight seconds with the score 82 – 76 to “ice” his team win.
“It’s my seventh year here and I always do these things,” Vesely said. “I’m happy for the team. Finally, we played team basketball, not for 40 minutes but at least most of the time. After losing by so many points, we realized that we had to be more focused, play like a team, and don’t quit. We didn’t quit today even though they came close. We came back and got the victory.”
DyShawn Pierre had previously scored five consecutive points, including the dagger from beyond the arc to make his points 14 and push back an Olympiacos comeback from down 14 in the final period.
It was Sasha Vezenkov’s (17 points) three straight 3-pointers and 11 points in less than three minutes that had enabled Olympiacos‘ turnaround and brought the Reds close to 75 – 74 with two minutes remaining. Fener didn’t let the visiting side get any more dangerous.
Melih Mahmutoglu added 12 points, Danilo Barthel 11, Nando De Colo contributed 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists for Fener.
Livio Jean-Charles finished with 12 points plus six boards and Aaron Harison with Spanoulis dropped 11 points apiece for Olympiacos. Their team had began the game with 7 – 11 triples (they ultimately finished with 15-32) to lead up by 22 – 29 early in the first period, the moment when Fener began turning it upside down to its favor.
Fenerbahce’s hunger led the way
For Fenerbahce coach Igor Kokoskov, it was a matter of putting everything on the floor to get this much-needed win.
It was a team effort,” Kokoskov said. “We came with the mindset to be aggressive. It wasn’t pretty; there were a lot of mistakes. We were gassed, and we had a couple of new guys so we’re looking for the right rotation. But overall we had the desire to protect the home court and win this game. We got frustrated with the mental mistakes we were making but there was big heart. Just pure effort and energy gave us the victory tonight.”
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball