By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce traveled to Germany minus Kostas Sloukas and watched Bogdan Bogdanovic leaving with an ankle injury near the end of the first quarter. The omens weren’t particularly great.
It had Bobby Dixon “in the zone” though. With a 26 points EuroLeague career-high, and crucial buckets in the final stretch, he helped the Turkish team beat Brose Bamberg 83 – 78 and remain in the Top Four of the standings, now at a 17 – 9 record.
Fenerbahce players would definitely enjoy this victory far more if Bogdanovic didn’t leave the court never to return suffering from visible pains in his ankle. “We’ll know the details tomorrow,” said Zeljko Obradovic.
Although Andrea Trinchieri’s guys came back from a 18-point third quarter deficit, mostly thanks to Fabien Causeur (15 points) and Darius Miller (14 points), they only got as far as making it a four-point game, 75 – 79 with one minute to go.
Melih Mahmutoglu (5 points) took over from Dixon, who got fouled out, and banged a key downtown bucket for the 75 – 82 and basically finished the match in his team’s favor. At the same time he shut off Brose Bamberg‘s mathematical playoff chances, since the Bavarians remained at nine victories with four games left in the regular season.
Despite the blow with Bogdanovic’s injury controlled the vast majority of the match, going ahead 50 – 68 near the end of the third period. But the hosts rallied for a 12 – 0 run that brought an entirely new interest to the match.
Fenerbahce pushed back with Dixon and Luigi Datome (15 points, 5 rebounds) until Causeur’s consecutive baskets got his team to close range. Nikos Zisis (15 points) made his former team sweat a bit more making the 75 – 79 from the line, but then Mahmutoglu “spoke” from beyond the arc with the game’s most decisive basket.