By Alex Molina / info@eurohoops.net
In the sixth week of the EuroLeague, Fenerbahçe Beko defeated Anadolu Efes on the road, securing their third victory in the league.
Fenerbahçe Beko head coach Saras Jasikevicius spoke after the game, lamenting that the gym wasn’t at full capacity despite being one of the biggest games in Europe.
“You are asking me about the Istanbul derby, but I can’t lie, it’s not a full gym here in Efes. Efes has a great team this year, and they’re playing against the defending champions. The Turkish National Team came back one month and a half ago with a huge hype, with amazing performance. We are not selling out in Ulker Arena, Efes is not selling out. I know it’s not the answer you were looking for, but it’s the truth.”
Saras also spoke about his team’s performance in the second half, which gave his team the win.
“Our physicality in the second half was much better than in the first. Of course, our ability to find and convert open shots also helped a lot. Bonzie made some crucial shots. We found our game, albeit step by step, we played patiently, and we managed to win against a very good team in a difficult away game”, he said. “When a team goes through a tough period, every coach wants to play players who have previously performed to their liking. Of course, we won the championship with these players last season. We’re in a period of change; the season has just begun. We have some very good new players, but it will take some time for them to get used to it.”
Later, at the press conference room, Saras spoke again about how poorly his team played in the first half. “It was not very good, we didn’t deserve to be up after the first half. But I am happy that after we went with the guys who have been there for us last year, we managed to pull out the game”.
It wasn’t easy nor beautiful, but Fenerbahce got the win: “It’s important to have the mentality to try to find a way to win guys the ugly way. I don’t think that Fenerbahce is capable of playing very good basketball right now, but nobody is interested in hearing this type of excuses. Somehow, we need to find a way to win ways in an ugly way. Right now this is what we must be ready to do, basketball hopefully will come a little bit later when we start figuring out everybody, it’s a process”.