By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Fenerbahce needs one more win to get to the Final Four, and despite an admirable season, Paris is on the verge of elimination.
The Turkish side prevailed in Game 2 (89-72) with the game being practically decided in the first half, and has a solid 2-0 lead in the series.
Tarik Biberovic with a career high of 20 points, and Nigel Hayes-Davis (16 p.) set the tone on the offensive end, Wade Baldwin (11 p.) and Marko Guduric (13 p.) also contributed; however, once more, the story of the game was Fenerbahce’s defense.
“Tremendous support from the crowd, great energy, extremely loud hostile environment that helps us and keeps us going”, said Hayes-Davis after the final buzzer for the home court factor that helped the team perform.
However, even with this being the fourth win of Fenerbahce in the season in four games against Paris, Hayes-Davis does not believe that everything is over: “I said to you that every playoff game is a season, so we have another season next week in Paris and that’s all we have. We have to look at it like it’s a championship game”.
TJ Shorts had 18 points and four assists, but also four turnovers and just 5/14 FG. Nadir Hifi added 15 points on 6/17 FG. Tyson Ward scored 10 points, but it was far from enough as the guests finished the night with six made threes in 26 attempts.
With the series moving to Paris, the French side can regroup, but one more defeat will end their season, and they are in danger of a sweep.
Five minutes of nightmare
Contrary to Game 1, Fenerbahce had things in control early on, opening the game with a 29-20 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Paris didn’t let the lead get to double digits, but couldn’t trim it to less than six points (42-36).
However, in the five minutes left in the second period, Fenerbahce had a 19-2 run, pushing its advantage to 23 points (61-38) with Biberovic and Hayes-Davis scoring 12 points each.
Paris had just 2/9 threes in the first half, with Fenerbahce shooting 8/13 threes and 15/17 two-pointers, while the 61 points in 20 minutes of action is the best performance in the playoffs since 2005.
A three by Devon Hall made the score 64-39 to start the second half. Paris tried to fight back and trimmed the lead to 15 points (72-57) at the end of the third quarter with Hifi and Mikael Jantunen scoring back-to-back threes.
Still, the home side had things under control, Wade Baldwin scored four unanswered points (76-57) and killed the last hopes of Paris for a comeback.
Photo credit: EuroLeague