By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce needed to win big and ALBA Berlin proved to be the ideal victim. The Turkish side got the easy 101-86 triumph over the Germans and with a 14-9 record remains in the fifth spot of the standings.
However, the point is that Fenerbahce dominated their opponent after a stretch of bad games, including Tuesday’s defeat to Olympiacos.
Nigel Hayes-Davis, with 24 points and 11 rebounds, was the winning side’s top scorer, while Jonathan Motley had 18 points, including some spectacular dunks.
“We just wanted to come out and focus on two things: playing defense and moving the ball”, said Hayes-Davis after the game adding on a lighter note: “Coach told me if I don’t rebound and make threes, he was going to send me home, so I just wanted to come out and do my best to try to do that”.
Fenerbahce led by four (31-27) at the end of the first quarter, by 10 (57-47) at halftime, and by 20 at the end of the third (81-61).
As Motley explained: “We just wanted to focus on starting better than we have been. Lately, we have been losing games based on bad starts, and our second and third quarters are pretty good. So we just really wanted to start well today, and I think we did a good job at that”.
For Fenerbahce coach Dimitris Itoudis, things were simple and defense was the key: “We did a pretty good job in the third quarter in order to make stops: we only gave up 14 points in that third quarter. I think it was a turning point and the fact that we managed to force 16 turnovers is big. Obviously, we didn’t contain them a lot but still, we have a confident win, so congratulations to the team and thank you to the fans”.
Yanni Wetzell with 13 points and Yovel Zoosman with 12 were the leading scorers of the losing side, which remains in the last spot of the standings with a 6-17.
As ALBA coach Israel Gonzalez admitted: “We are in a difficult moment. We were trying to do our best but things are not coming in the way that we want. But we have to keep working to have better feelings, earn more respect, and get more chances to be able to win the game. We have to keep working and working, and this is the only way.”