By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
After losing in Round 2 against Valencia on the road, Fenerbahce managed to bounce back to go up 2-1 in the EuroLeague Regular Season, beating Panathinaikos 83-69. Ergin Ataman’s team, therefore, is down 1-2 after last week’s victory against Bayern Munich.
Being perfect both from the field and at the charity stripe, Marko Guduric had 12 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals for Dimitris Itoudis’ team, leading it. “That was our gameplan: limit their shots and assists, while we had 2o. I’m happy with our job tonight. I tried to stay aggressive and set the tone from the beginning. There are people out there fighting and dying, we’re thinking about them”, the Serbian guard said after the game, dedicating the victory to the war victims.
Johnathan Motley had another pretty impressive performance against a tough defender like Mathias Lessort, scoring 14 points with 6 rebounds for Fenerbahce. Spending on the court the vast majority of the encounter – 29:17 minutes – (also) due to Tyler Dorsey’s long-term injury, Nick Calathes had 12 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists against his former team. Another former Panathinaikos player, Georgios Papagiannis scored 15 points to roll over his Greek past. Dyshawn Pierre contributed on the glass, getting 10 rebounds.
“We had focus and determination, we were the best team on the court, and that was obvious. We were very good at sharing the ball, and Nick Calathes played a major role in that. He had an amazing game. Huge thank you also to our fans, they were amazing tonight, they gave the boost to the players which is needed against a great team”, Dimitris Itoudis commented after the victory.
On Ergin Ataman’s side, the former Partizan Belgrade center was the highest-scorer of his team with 19 points and 4 rebounds with 7/7 from two-point range. Kyle Guy followed with 13 points, while the former Fenerbahce playmaker Kostas Sloukas had 4 points but struggled with 4 turnovers.
“The problem was the first quarter, we started the game very badly and got a huge point difference from the beginning. Then it’s difficult to come back and recover”, Panathinaikos’ head coach Ergin Ataman commented in the post-game flash interview.
After Mathias Lessort scored for the partial 6-4 with 6:56 on the clock in the first quarter, Panathinaikos never regained the lead, as Fenerbahce entered a 23-3 run to enter the second period up by 22 points (27-9). Things didn’t really change in the second quarter, when the Greens tried to reduce the margin but went to the locker room trailing by 15 points (43-28). In the remaining ten minutes of the game, the guests tried to get back into contention with a 24-16 run, but couldn’t make it in time.
In the first double-game week of this year’s Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season, Fenerbahce will face ASVEL at home on October 19 at 19:45 CET, while Panathinaikos is supposed to face Maccabi Tel Aviv the following day at 20:15 CET. However, due to the ongoing war in Israel, things could change.
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague