An incredible Euroleague match in Istanbul, Barcelona celebrated after the drama against Fenerbahce 76:74. The man of the decision was Nikola Mirotic, who hit for the victory with the sound of a siren.
Barça entered the game badly, but didn’t allow Fener to make a big lead, after the first quarter, the home team made 5 points lead (20:15), and the responsible player for that was Jan Veseli, who had a double-digit until the end of the quarter (10 points). On the other side, Corey Higgins scored six points.
The team from Spain has made a lot of progress, especially in defense and jump control. Very good Brandon Davis and Nick Calathes directed the reversal of the Catalans. Fenerbahce managed to score only nine points in the second quarter, so they went to the break with a delay (35:29).
In the third quarter, neither team managed to achieve any great advantage. The host had a chance to lead by half a point difference before the last quarter, but Roland Schmidt scored two seconds before the end of the third for 49:48.
An even match in the last quarter between Fenerbahce and Barça. They took turns in the lead, but no one separated. Nikola Mirotic hit the buzzer-beater for the victory of Barcelona (76:74). In this match, Mirotic scored eight points with seven rebounds, but he was the key player in the thriller finale.
At Barcelona, the most efficient was Corey Higgins with 18 points, followed by Brandon Davis with 16 and Nick Calathes with 11 points, but he also had four rebounds and seven assists. With the defeated team, Jan Veseli played a great game. He only needed two rebounds for a double-double, and he scored 24 points. Marko Guduric, a member of the Serbian national team, also had notable statistics, scoring 17 points, with two rebounds and three assists.
Two days from now, Fener is visiting Olympiacos, while on the other side, Barcelona is visiting “Pride of Israel” in Tel Aviv.
The basketball players of the Greek Olympiacos celebrated in Piraeus against Alba with 86:81. George Barcokas’s team almost gambled plus 12 after three quarters of the match.
The Greek representative gained a great advantage after the first ten minutes. Costas Papanikolaou led them to plus eight, who scored 12 points in the first section (27:19).
At the start of the second quarter, the team from Berlin started to score, and in a little less than three minutes, they came to minus three, with a good series by Yovel Zoosman. However, it didn’t take Olympiacos much to make a series and get the double-digit advantage (40:26). By the end of the second quarter, Alba was 10 points behind (52:42).
The Greeks continued in a good mood, Olympiacos maintained the advantage, and at the end of the third quarter they had a big 12-point lead(71:59).
The players of Olympiacos almost gambled a great advantage that they built during the entire match. Alba entered the last quarter in a great mood and abruptly started to melt the advantage of the Greeks. On the wings of Oscar Da Silva, they reached one possession behind (80:77), but Tyler Dorsey and Sasha Vezenkov pulled out the victory.
In the defeated team, Da Silva was not enough with 17 points scored, double-digit were Maodo Lo with 11, Luis Olinde and Jalen Smith with 10 points each. Luke Sikma was also excellent, scoring nine points, ten rebounds and eight assists. Olympiacos was led to victory by Tyler Dorsey with 13 points, while Costas Papanikolaou scored 12 and Costas Slucas ten points with six assists.
In the next round of the Euroleague, the German derby awaits us, where Alba will meet Bayern in Berlin, and Olympiacos will play against Fenerbahce in Piraeus.
