By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Jan Vesely made a crucial shot with one minute left, Alec Peters turned the ball over in the next and Kostas Sloukas iced the 79-75 win for Fenerbahce over CSKA Moscow.
Vesely with 19 points and 10 rebounds was one more dominating and Marko Guduric added 15 crucial points as the hosts come back from 18 points to get a big win in the battle for the top of the regular season standings. After this result, Fenerbahce has a 12-1 record, while the guests dropped to 10-3.
CSKA Moscow had things under control during the first half, leading by 48-30 at the closing seconds of the second quarter.
However, the two teams went to the locker room with Fenerbahce cutting the lead to 15 (48-33) after three by Guduric which proved to be the start of an amazing comeback. Thanks to a 19-0 run between the second and the third period, Fenerbahce got a 52-48 lead and turned the tables.
“The second half was a completely different picture. We needed to play more aggressive and smarter because it was obvious that in the first half, we didn’t try to do the things that we prepared“, said after the game Fenerbahce’s coach Zeljko Obradovic. “They did a great job, first of all, at the beginning of the third quarter. It was really very special. We had a problem at the beginning of the fourth quarter. It was also normal, I believe, because of the minutes some players had in the game, but at the end of the game, we got one very important victory against an excellent team“.
Will Clyburn with a three gave to CSKA the 62-60 lead with ten minutes of action remaining, setting the stage for a thrilling finale.
The “Army Team” made its own 8-0 run (67-60), but with 90 seconds left the score was tied at 75 and in the end, the hosts emerged as the winners.
Will Clyburn with 17 points and Cory Higgins with 12 were the top scorers of the losing side. “Definitely, the third quarter hurt us a lot“, said CSKA’ coach Dimitris Itoudis. “The game could have gone either way in the last moments. We had missed an open look, two layups and had a turnover. But like I said, I will stay on this key of outhustling, rebounding… the difference is huge. They had nine offensive rebounds, under our basket, in the second half, with us having eight defensive rebounds. They had more rebounds under our basket than us. Once again, congratulations to them.”
Photo credit: EuroLeague