By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Crvena Zvezda took down Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 74-69 in a rare Sunday Turkish Airlines EuroLeague display (a rescheduled Round 19 meeting) and the Serbian side bounced back two days after their defeat to Panathinaikos in Athens.
With the two teams battling head-to-head down the final minute and Zvezda up by one point, Nando De Colo was called with a foul on Nikola Kalinic who converted both free throws for the hosts. Dejan Davidovac then proceeded to block Achille Polonara’s shot and Nate Wolters hit the net in the final 27 seconds to hand Zvezda a five-point advantage and hold on in the final possessions to seal the win.
Kalinic led all scorers of the winners with 11 points, Dejan Davidovac and Luka Mitrovic picked up 9 points and 6 rebounds apiece, while Ognjen Dobric also scored 9 points. With this win, Zvezda tops the tiebreaker (Fenerbahce won their season-opener 61-57 in Istanbul) and moves up to a 10-15 record while remaining 13th in the standings.
Danilo Barthel posted a game-high performance with 15 points for the visiting team, Marko Guduric followed with 14 points, Devin Booker added 11 points and 7 rebounds and Dyshawn Pierre also had 11. Fenerbahce dropped to 12-11 with their second defeat of the week.
“We were missing a little bit of lucidity and energy”, said Fener coach Sasa Djordjevic. “We have a couple of guys who just came back with a couple of practices like Barthel, who had a pretty good game, actually, and Nando De Colo. This is our season, basically. More or less, right, we are again trying to find the game shape that we had and took us to some good wins”.
Photo credit: EuroLeague