Fenerbahce (Istanbul) won 87:77 (43:40) over the Greek Olympiacos in the derby of the round in the Euroleague men's basketball. The Bulgarian star of the Greeks, Alexander Vezenkov, played 28:23 minutes, scoring 19 points, taking only two rebounds and giving one assist.
The Greeks, who are at the top of the Euroleague standings, had an advantage only in the first quarter, but after that Fenerbahce completely dominated. Thus, the Turkish team recorded its second victory of the season over Olympiacos by a double-digit margin and has 15 wins and 7 losses from 22 games. The "Red-Whites" from Piraeus are at the top with 16/7, but their series of seven victories in the Euroleague ended today in their own hall. In line with his team's play, Vezenkov should also be satisfied only with his strong first half, and in the match as a whole, the Bulgarian scored 8 times from shooting from game situations. Fenerbahçe's team forged the victory mostly with its excellent defense, and this was most evident in the moments when the hosts could not find space to shoot during their own play and were literally forced to get rid of the ball as time ran out.
The Serbian Marko Guduric was the best in the match, scoring 21 points for the guests, grabbing 3 rebounds and making 4 assists. Also excellent were the Americans Eric McCallum and Nigel Hayes with 12 points each for the Lanterns. For Olympiacos, the most productive was Evan Fournier also with 21 points, followed by Vezenkov with 19.
"The Red and Whites" of coach Giorgos Bartsokas stepped better on the court and with their favorite game, based on combinations, led 13:5, with Vezenkov and Fournier being the axes of the attack. The entry of Meli and McCallum improved the face of the Turks and as a result, the difference melted to 4 points at the end of the first quarter (21:17), and Vezenkov had 9 points. In the second quarter, however, the Turks prepared the ground for a turnaround. The simultaneous presence on the field of Guduric, Biberovic, Zagars, combined with the sluggish defense of the hosts, literally created a bridgehead for the team of Sarunas Jasikevicius, who led 33:41 with 2:42 left in the first half.
In the third part, they continued to follow the same strategy and the score after the third quarter 59:69 turned out to be the first with a double-digit lead for the guests from Turkey. At the beginning of the last period, Olympiacos had more energy in the defensive zone, but this did not last long with the active Guduric. The Serb literally answered the hosts alone all the time and had the main merit for the fifth consecutive victory and the 9th in all events. In the other two matches that were played today, victories were achieved by Bayern (Munich) and ASVEL Villeurbanne (France). The Bavarians won the all-German clash with ALBA (Berlin) 99:84, while the French team from ASVEL Villeurbanne handled Barcelona 100:94. Barcelona, Red Star Belgrade and Bayern (Munich) share 7-9th place with 13 wins and 10 losses.