By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
A walk in the park during the first half ended up being a hard-fought duel and Fenerbahce BEKO in the end got the 72-65 road win over Zalgiris in Kaunas.
It was a sloppy game which will also be remembered because of Tarik Biberovic’s non-contact injury at the start of the fourth quarter, while Fenerbahce is already missing Devon Hall and Wade Baldwin.
“We are just trying to survive right now, not talking about improving, even if it’s just November”, said coach Sarunas Jasikevicius.
Nigel Hayes-Davis with 18 points and 11 rebounds was once more the leader of the winning side, Marko Guduric added 17 points, while Arturs Zagars and Sertac Sanli added 10 points each.
Fenerbahce with an 8-2 record leads the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Lonnie Walker had 19 points for Zalgiris and Sylvain Fransisco added 13 as the Lithuanian team dropped to 6-4.
A tale of two halves
Zalgiris got a small lead to end the first period (21-17) and with Walker scoring 11 points was up 23-20 to start the second quarter.
However, Fenerbahce had a 14-0 run (34-23) with five different players scoring and the momentum changed. Zalgiris couldn’t buy a bucket, and Fenerbahce led by 17 (43-26) at halftime with the score in the period being 26-5.
The home side shot 7/21 (33%) in two-pointers and 3/12 (25%) in threes during the first half, while Fenerbahce already had a 24-13 rebounding advantage.
Zalgiris started the second half furiously with a quick 9-0 run to make it an eight-point game (43-35).
Fenerbahce weathered the storm and got back up by 11 (48-37) after a three by Hayes-Davis, but Zalgiris thanks to five points by Fransisco trimmed the lead to six (48-42) and then to five (52-47) at the end of the third quarter with a partial score of 21-9.
Fenerbahce scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter (54-47) and at the same time lost Biberovic to injury as the dogfight continued.
Hayes-Davis made one more key three (57-49) to keep the distance, and Guduric followed with one more (60-51) only for Fransisco and Matt Mitchell to make it again a five-point game (60-55).
Mitchell trimmed the lead to three (66-63), and Hayes-Davis answered (68-63), both teams lost chances to score, and with 66 seconds left, Fransisco made two free throws (68-65).
With the game on the line, Goudouric, Hayes-Davis after an offensive rebound, and Fransisco missed. Fenerbahce got the ball with six seconds left, Zagars got fouled and made his free throws (70-65) and the outcome was decided.
Photo credit: EuroLeague