By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Lorenzo Brown in his biggest game so far in the season with 18 points, Nando De Colo with 20 points, and Jan Vesely almost with a triple-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists led Fenerbahce to the crucial 100-92 road win over AX Armani Exchange Milan.
Brown made three threes in the last two minutes of the third period when Fenerbahce for the first time got a solid lead and pushed Milan to the ropes.
De Colo was clutch once more and Vesely made crucial plays on both sides of the floor as Fenerbahce now has a solid 16-11 record and remains on playoffs course.
As Vesely explained, it was payback time: “First of all, we had a horrible beginning of the season. We were losing everything by 30 and in our last game against Efes, we lost like that. Our mentality was trying to forget about the game at home with Efes and play as we played in the 10 games that we won in a row, so we did that. We fought and stayed together. We made some mistakes at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but we brought it until the end, so I am very happy for the team.”
The duo of Marko Guduric and DyShaun Pierre added 15 points each with Fenerbahce finishing the game with 12/23 threes.
Milan was missing Zach LeDay and Malcolm Delaney but got 20 points by Kevin Punter and 16 by Gigi Datome and also shoot the lights out with 13/25 threes.
In a close game from wire to wire with a score of 28-24 in favor of Milan at the end of the first quarter, Fenerbahce got the lead thanks to an 11-2 run (48-43) but trailed by two at halftime (52-50) after a steal and a three by Jeff Brooks at the buzzer.
Milan managed to build a seven-point advantage (60-53), only to have Fenerbahce come back with a 13-0 run (66-60). Fenerbahce kept pushing and managed to enter the last period with a nine-point cushion (78-69) that jumped to 11 points (80-69) in the first possession of the fourth quarter.
It was time for Milan to react and with a 12-4 run, they trailed just by one (82-81) with six minutes left. Still, Fenerbahce kept the lead until the end, making all the right plays at clutch time.
“It is a great thing that we won the game against a tough team and a great coach, one of the legends, one of the greatest coaches in European basketball, so for us, just leaving this arena with a win, we accomplished why we are here”, said Fenerbahce coach Igor Kokoskov about his great opponent Ettore Messina.
Milan has now a 17-10 record and they are tied with Bayern Munich in the third spot of the standings, while Fenerbahce is also tied between the 7th and the 8th position with Real Madrid with a 16-11 record.