By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Pierria Henry scored 22 points and dished out eight assists while Jan Vesely finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds as Fenerbahce Beko defeated Bayern Munich 81 – 76 to snap a six-game skid in a makeup match for Round 26 of the EuroLeague regular season. It was the best EuroLeague performance for both Fener players since their return from injuries that kept them sidelined for several games.
“I was dead. I tried to focus,” Vesely said. “Since coming back from my injury, I have tried to help the team as much as I can, even when I was not in my best shape. Now, I feel a little bit better. It was a team win. We played hard, we played together. We showed character at the end on defense, and that’s how we won the game.”
While this result doesn’t change much for already-eliminated Fener, it hurt Bayern’s chances to climb higher than the eighth spot in the standings and avoid a potential playoff matchup with first-seeded Barcelona.
Augustine Rubit had 17 points plus five rebounds, Darrun Hilliard dropped 13 points and Zan Sisko posted eight points and eight assists for Bayern. Their team came back from down 15 points overall and erased a 12-point halftime deficit to go up 52 – 62 near the end of the third period after a 0 -10 run.
“They’re a good team,” Henry said on Bayern’s turnaround. “They play hard, they’re well-coached. You gotta respect them. Everybody’s a professional, everybody’s competitive, everybody’s still trying to get better. You expect nothing less than a dogfight. I just tried to change the pace, change gears, play to my strengths and help my teammates the best way that I can.”
Vesely and Henry took over and led a 12 – 2 run to give Fener the advantage once more. The latter drained a big 3-pointer for the 78 – 73 with 53 seconds to play and then Vesely scored for the 80 – 76 while their team kept Bayern at bay to to get the win.
“Congratulations to Fenerbahce for a great game and a good win,” Bayern coach Andrea Trinchieri said. “We had a very bad first 20 minutes and we played great for 15 minutes in the second half. And then we came up short a couple of plays. Maybe they had more energy. But overall, we played a solid game, especially the second half.”
The help from the bench
Fener coach Sasa Djordjevic made a special mention to the players that came off the bench for pushing the squad towards the win.
“The first two quarters were played in a really good way,” Djordjevic said. “We were pushing the ball, playing good defense, taking advantage of some of their mistakes offensively. The third quarter we really didn’t start well. We didn’t have a rhythm. They had a 9-0 run and I had to call a timeout. That’s not something we should have allowed. But we got back into it and in the end showed character. We got a lot from the guys on the bench – support and energy.”