By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce Beko led from start to finish and was up even by 20 down the stretch en route to defeating Bayern Munich 74 – 62 on the road to begin the 2022-23 EuroLeague in a strong fashion.
Tonye Jekiri produced 15 points plus six rebounds, Nick Calathes had 12 points, plus five assists and four boards while Nigel Hayes-Davis and Dyshawn Pierre scored 11 and 10 respectively for Fenerbahce. Their team finished with 20 assists overall, quite the number for 74 points, and had a well-balanced performance to get the win.
As Calathes said: “I thought the big thing was our defense. We came out here and played very good defense. It’s a tough place to play, they’re a good team, well coached, so for us, it’s a good start to the season. The fans were unbelievable, I didn’t know they traveled like this – maybe there are a lot of Turkish people in Germany, but they were amazing. Thank you to them for giving us the homecourt feeling.”
More than half of Fener‘s points (40) were either Bayern’s turnovers or were a result of second-chance opportunities. Dimitris Itoudis’ squad had 27 points from opponents’ mistakes while scoring 13 after offensive rebounds.
Bayern committed 19 turnovers and struggled especially in the last 15 minutes. The hosts fell behind 44 – 57 after a 0 – 9 run and then fell apart in the fourth period as Fener took a 54 – 74 lead with three minutes to play.
“I think the factor was our defense and the 19 turnovers we forced”, said coach Itoudis. “This is a very good offensive team, they have a lot of schemes, a lot of possibilities of scoring the ball, and it was obvious that we forced them to do turnovers and our passion on the defensive end was a key factor.”
As Bayern coach Andrea Trinchieri admitted: “We had a very poor game, without concentration and we have to get better. For many of our important players, this is their first game in EuroLeague, and we saw it.”
Veteran center Othello Hunter put up the biggest fight among Bayern players to finish with 18 points plus eight rebounds in 23:08. Nick Weiler-Babb had 12 points plus five assists and Andreas Obst scored 10.