By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
On a night full of big plays, Bayern Munich managed to get the 90-86 win over Fenerbahce BEKO, has an 11-10 record and remains on playoffs course after beating the top team of the standings.
The duo of Derrick Williams and Stefan Jovic scored 19 points each, Williams made a difference on defense and Vladimir Lucic who finished the game with nine points knocked down some of the most important shots of the night.
At the end of the first overtime, Lucic made a huge three that gave to Bayern an 80-79 lead. Joffrey Lauvergne was fouled but made only one of two free throws and the end result was five more minutes of basketball. Bayern started the second overtime with a 5-0 run and kept the advantage until the end.
For the winning coach Dejan Radonjic, the key was defense: “We played our best defensive game, for sure. We played quite good defense in Moscow, but in my opinion, this was our best defensive game, against the first-ranked team in the EuroLeague right now, which is also important.”
From the losing side, Bobby Dixon was simply amazing with 23 points, however, the absence of Jan Vesely was obvious on both ends of the floor. However, according to coach Obradovic, this should not be a factor, at least on the mentality of his players: “We played without concentration in some moments of the game. We played some games without Vesely and it is not a problem. It is not good if this is the problem. If you start to think like that, it is not the correct way”.
It was a close affair from wire to wire as the first half ended with the guests having a 34-29 lead. Dixon with 11 points in just eight minutes on the court led the charge for Fenerbahce, while the hosts proved they can keep up with the former champs.
And especially in the third quarter, Bayern put the pressure on Fenerbahce, which built a seven-point advantage (40-33), but the answer of the hosts was a 9-0 run to take the lead (42-40).
The two teams entered the last period tied at 52 and thanks to a three by Vladimir Lucic and with 12 seconds left in the last possession of regulation Kostas Sloukas made the coast-to-coast and send the game to overtime, tying the score at 66.
Photo credit: EuroLeague