By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce remains among the top EuroLeague contenders and proved it at home against Zalgiris.
Despite a bad start, the home team got the 98-86 win and moved to a 14-7 record, keeping the second spot in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings.
Nigel Hayes Davis with 21 points, Marko Guduric added 20, Tarik Biberovic (photo) had 15, and Arturs Zagars scored 11.
On the other side, Alen Smailagic had his best EuroLeague night with 24 points, Sylvan Fransisco added 16 and Ignas Brazdeikis scored 12 but none in the second half.
The game ended with coach Andrea Trinchieri getting ejected and Zalgiris tied for the 11th spot in the standings with Partizan having an 11-11 record.
Fenerbahce won in the second half
Zalgiris opened up the game leading 20-10, proving they were ready for an upset. Fenerhace reacted and closed the gap at the end of the first quarter to three points (20-17).
However, Zalgiris, behind 19 points by Alex Smaigalic, extended the lead to 13 (39-26) with three minutes left in the second period. The halftime score was 47-34, with the home side shooting 2/11 threes while Zalgiris had 7/11.
With the shots starting to fall for Fenerbahce, the hosts trimmed the lead to five (53-48) and closed the gap to three (65-62) after a shot by Arturs Zagars. Still, Sylvain Fransisco at the buzzer gave Zalgiris a six-point cushion (68-62) at the end of the third period.
Marko Guduric answered with back-to-back threes to tie the score at 68 and with the 10th three of Fenerbahce for the game, Nigel Hayes-Davis gave his team the 73-71 lead. Tarik Biberovic followed to make the score 75-71 and with one more three Devon Hall extended the lead to 78-72.
Fenerbahce extended the lead to 10 (85-75) with 2.30 left and the game was decided as Zalgiris couldn’t get back into sticking distance. The home side finished the game with 12/26 threes.
Photo credit: EuroLeague