By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Joel Bolomboy scored a EuroLeague career-high 24 points on 8-9 shots as Crvena Zvezda opened the new EuroLeague calendar year by taking a big 85 – 76 road win over Fenerbahce Beko and sweeping the regular-season games between the two sides.
Rokas Giedraitis contributed 19 points plus seven rebounds for Zvezda, improving to 7 – 11. Fener dropped to 10 – 8 in its first loss at home this season and first defeat overall after four straight wins since Sarunas Jasikevicius took over.
“It definitely feels good,” Bolomboy said. He also grabbed six rebounds in the 31 minutes he spent on the floor. “More importantly, it feels good to win and find consistency as a team. Overall as a team and individually we played better 1 on 1 defense. That led us to have to help and rotate less. We got rebounds and stops down the stretch to get the W,” the American big man added on what made the difference for his team in the decisive fourth quarter.
Zvezda dominated the last period 19 – 28, going up 57 – 61 early in the quarter following an 11-0 run. The Serbian team’s aggressive defense worked wonders while players like Branko Lazic and Nemanja Nedovic hit some big shots as their team began to establish a lead beyond a shooting distance.
“Everyone did the right thing”
“I want to congratulate all my players,” Zvezda coach Giannis Sfairopoulos said. “Everybody who came to play the game was very concentrated. In each part of the game, every one of our players did the right thing. We made smart use of the fouls and we had patience. When Fener got the lead in the third quarter we didn’t panic and found the right ways to attack them.”
With the score 67 – 73, Milos Teodosic drained a triple of his own that was part of a 6-0 run that put Zvezda ahead 67 – 69 with 1:23 remaining. Fener scored some quick baskets courtesy of Sertac Sanli and Scottie Wilbekin but the margin was way too large for them to overcome.
Nigel Hayes-Davis had 21 points for Fener and Wilbekin scored 14. “We were playing naive as I told you at halftime,” Saras said, recalling his comments at the break when Fener led 35 – 34. “Zvezda seemed to be more motivated in everything, offensive rebounds, fast break points and so on. We continued playing like this and we paid the price.”
For Zvezda the icing on the cake was the EuroLeague debut of NBA prospect Nikola Topic who scored four points and dished four assists.
Topic who is expected to be a candidate in the upcoming draft was promoted to the senior team recently.