By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Real Madrid was missing injured Djanan Musa and sanctioned Mario Hezonja and Fenerbahce took total advantage of that.
The Turkish side won 78-67, with Nigel Hayes-Davis scoring 20 points, Errick McCollum adding 19, and Marko Guduric adding 10.
Fenerbahce now has a 17-8 record, good enough for the second position in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings, while Real Madrid dropped to 13-13 on the line for a spot in the play-ins.
Facundo Campazzo with 11 points was the only scorer in double digits for Madrid, which simply didn’t have available two of their main offensive weapons.
“[I see] a lot of missed shots, no ball movement but a very good win. I thought that by missing open shots earlier, we were going to second-guess ourselves, we should have taken a little bit more offensive rebounds. I expected the zone but didn’t do a good job preparing the team,” Sarunas Jasikevicius said.
Fenerbahce always in the lead
The two teams started the game scoreless for the first four minutes, and at the end of the first period, the score was tied at 16. However, Fenerbahce with a 12-0 run took a 40-28 lead at halftime with McCollum scoring the last basket for a total of 15 personal first-half points.
With the first basket of the second half, the lead extended to 14 points (42-28), but Real Madrid, with a zone defense and Sergio Llull making back-to-back threes, closed the gap to six (45-39).
A three by Devon Hall pushed the lead back to 12 (56-44), the score at the end of the third quarter was 58-47, and Fenerbahce continued to fire at all cylinders, making it a 15-point game (69-54) with six minutes left in the game.
The hosts continued their push and extended the lead to 20 points (76-56), practically deciding the game.
“When this happens in a double-game week, you think you’re very low because in two games you go down. We have to keep the spirit up, we have to fight in all of them,” Chus Mateo commented.
Photo credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague