By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
After a bad loss in Belgrade, Monaco (12-8) had a big fight in Istanbul with the hosts ultimately winning again.
Fenerbahce (13-7) is on a roll with a third win in a row, 98-94 after overtime, and also got the tiebreaker against Monaco with two wins over them in the regular season.
Scottie Wilbekin led the winners with 21, Nigel Hayes-Davis had 18, and Marko Guduric scored 17, sealing the deal in the end with two crucial free throws.
“We feel really good, especially after they came back and tested our character, pushing us to overtime. But we were able to fight through, get the buckets that we needed and make the free throws that we needed. We could have made it easier on ourselves if we had made more free throws and limited their offensive rebounds, but right now we’re just happy that we won“, Scottie Wilbekin said after the game.
Mike James finished with 23 points and Yakuba Ouattara had 19 for Monaco. It was a huge win for the home team which will remain at least in second place with 13 wins while sending Monaco to 12-8.
“Give some credit to our players. Congratulations to them. I told them at halftime, since it’s no longer a secret, that the way we played in the first half, we don’t deserve to be in the playoffs. We didn’t have desire, smart defensive plays, offensive sharing of the ball“, Dimitris Itoudis said.
The guests have reeled themselves back from a 19-10 deficit to tie it up after 10 minutes to 20-20. Then Monaco took over in the second quarter with multiple scoring runs, one of them ending in a four-point play for Mike James. Wilbekin’s layup gave Fenerbahce a high note to end a second quarter dominated by Monaco which was leading by eight (47-39).
A fight until the end
But the game was far from over. The home side was on a run of its own when Johnathan Motley tied up the score (55-55), and right after that Wilbekin gave them the lead (56-55). It seemed like Monaco was out of gas in the fourth quarter. Fenerbahce made a crucial run for a big 77-70 lead with four minutes left in the game. However, that was not enough as Monaco miraculously got back into the game.
On the game-deciding play, Monaco’s Okobo inbounded from the side. James started the play high and got by Calathes to the rim but he was challenged by Booker at the rim. James missed, but John Brown puts it back easily with 0.04 seconds on the clock. Overtime was going to decide the winner.
The drama continued. Mike James cut down the lead to 96-94 with one more big shot, but with just 10 seconds left, Guduric was fouled and made his free throws.
“It was like a playoff game. Very tough, very physical. The result could also have been in our favor. We have to give the hand to Fener today; they won. Congrats to them“, Sasa Obradovic added.