By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Less than 48 hours after experiencing one of the worst defeats in its Euroleague history, Fenerbahce returned to victories in a more than emphatic manner. The Turkish champions overpowered Galatasaray 92 – 74 retaining second spot in the league’s standings, while their arch-rivals fell to the third place.
Given the two teams’ picture in the second half, the final score perhaps doesn’t do justice to how each squad performed. After a balanced first half (41 – 39), the hosts stormed out of the locker rooms playing superb basketball on both ends to finish the third quarter with a 16-point lead, 62 – 46.
The “Cimbom” tried to react but couldn’t do anything to stop their opponents from making one bucket after the other as Fener even reached an advantage of 24 points, 78 – 54 in the mid of the final period.
With a double-double consisted of 22 points and 10 rebounds, Jan Vesely was the protagonist of the winners’ efforts. Luigi Datome (15 points), Kostas Sloukas (12 points, 7 assists) and Bobby Dixon (12 points, 5 assists) were more than fine co-stars of their team’s triumphant win.
For Galatasaray, which suffered one black-out after the other in a destructive second half, captain Sinan Guler finished with 14 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds, while Justin Dentmon had 12 and Jon Diebler 10.
With this victory, Fenerbahce (5-1) remains in hot pursuit of Anadolu Efes (6-0), the only undefeated team in the championship together with Banvit (6-0). Though both league leaders got they wanted, their paths to victories were not the same, since Efes had an easy job vs Buyukcekmece (3-3) even without Thomas Heurtel, while Banvit narrowly beat Tofas Bursa (2-4) at home.
Squeezed with Fenerbahce stands Besiktas (5-1) that overthrew powerful Darussafaka Dogus (3-3) from the second place thanks to the… literally gigantic presence of a certain Serbian big guy.
Turkish Basketball Super League 2016/2017 – Day 6
Ted Ankara – Pinar Karsiyaka 78 – 84 (DaJuan Summers 21 p. 10 r.)
Usak Sportif – Yesilgiersun 79 – 86 (Malcolm Armstead 20 p. 9 a.)
Gaziantep – Best Baliksehir 88 – 80 (Marcus Denmon 27 p.)
Besiktas – Darussafaka Dogus 77 – 75 (Vladimir Stimac 28 p.)
Trabzonspor – Istanbul Buyuksehir 95 – 75 (Kenneth Kadji 29 p.)
Banvit – Tofas Bursa 84 – 82 (Jordan Theodore 25 p. 9 a.)
Anadolu Efes – Buyukcekmece 98 – 74 (Cedi Osman 17 p.)
Fenerbahce – Galatasaray 92 – 74 (Jan Vesely 22 p. 10 r.)