Zalgiris struck first but the hosts rallied to win the game
Fenerbahce flipped the script to spoil Alen Smailagic's record game
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Regular Season
Round 22 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Things did not look good for Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul in Round 22. At halftime, Zalgiris Kaunas led 34-47 at Ulker Sports and Event Hall and Alen Smailagic seemed to be everywhere.
Ignas Brazdeikis was Zalgiris's X-factor in the first quarter, getting a backdoor layup and a pair of three-pointers in the opening minutes. Brazdeikis averaged 3.6 points in the previous five games but had reached double digits midway through the first quarter, allowing Zalgiris to get a 17-20 lead after 10 minutes. Once Brazdeikis cooled off, Zalgiris found new answers on offense through an unstoppable Smailagic.
It was a second-quarter performance for the ages. Smailagic buried a couple of jumpers and went on to strike three times from beyond the arc to make it a double-digit game, 26-37. Smailagic also added four free throws and after a brief time on the bench, he returned to get a driving layup.
He scored 19 points, matching the best scoring mark in a second quarter since play-by-play started to be tracked in the 2007-08 season. Only one other player scored 19 points in the second quarter since 2007, as Elijah Bryant of Anadolu Efes Istanbul did so against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade last season. It is also a Zalgiris record for most points in any quarter, previously shared by Lukas Lekavicius, Marcus Brown and Zach LeDay with 16 each. Smailagic's career high was 16 points, and he got 19 alone in an electric second quarter.
What happened, then? Fenerbahce found its own go-to guy in Tarik Biberovic and also got the defensive answers it needed in the fourth quarter, using a small lineup featuring Bonzie Colson and Nigel Hayes-Davis around the baskets.
Hayes-Davis had eight points in the fourth quarter, while Biberovic scored all of his 15 points in the second half. Added to his great defensive effort, Colson had several key plays down the stretch: a block, a buzzer-beating three-pointer and a wild put-back dunk that sealed the outcome in the penultimate minute.
Zalgiris led 62-68 after 30 minutes, hitting 13-of-22 two-point shots (59.1% 2FG) and 11-of-20 three-pointers (55.0% 3FG), as well as getting 15 assists and just 6 turnovers. In those opening three quarters, Fenerbahce had 11 assists and 10 turnovers.
The visitors were limited to 2-of-8 three-pointers (25%), 4 assists and 5 turnovers in the fourth quarter, while Fenerbahce hit 5-of-7 shots from beyond the arc (71.4%), adding 5 assists and 3 turnovers. Taking better care of the ball when it mattered also made the difference down the stretch. Smailagic finished the with 24 points, 6 rebounds and a PIR of 25.
In a postgame interview, Hayes-Davis revealed part of coach Sarunas Jasikevicius's speech at halftime.
"A tale of two halves. In the first half we got down, they were beating us in all the loose balls. We made at least 30 plus mistakes against our rules and against our scouting report," Hayes-Davis said.
"And Coach let us hear one of the strongest words: soft. You never want to be called soft as a player and as a man, and Coach was saying we were all soft. And we responded. We did a great job of responding to that statement.
"We went out there, the crowd was behind us and we were able to fight. We were fighting a lot harder. We got to loose balls, rebounded the ball and guys made some really, really big shots. And we got the win."