Wade Baldwin suffered an injury early in a blow to the Turkish side
Fenerbahce got job done at ASVEL with a strong showing from Nigel Hayes-Davis
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Regular Season
Round 8 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul head coach Saras Jasikevicius knows his team cannot pull off victories with beautiful free-flowing basketball right now. But thanks to Nigel Hayes-Davis covering for injured star point guard Wade Baldwin, the Turkish giant is in the upper echelons of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague standings after a 73-77 win at LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne.
With that result, Fenerbahce has now won three straight games – as well as its last three on the road – to improve to a 6-2 record.
“We wanted to win the game in an ugly way and this is the only way we can do it right now. We have beaten some very good teams this year playing ugly and pulling through,” Jasikevicius told EuroLeague TV after the game.
Two statistics really stood out for the Lithuanian play-caller. The first was the team making just 6-of-32 three-pointers. That came after Fenerbahce made an abysmal 3-of-32 triple attempts against Petkim in the Turkish League last weekend.
“6 of 32 is really a bad number. The last two games we really haven’t been hitting shots,” he noted.
But Fenerbahce grabbed 19 offensive records, tying a club record in the EuroLeague in that category.
“That shows that the guys have a fighting spirit,” the coach added.
Jasikevicius also mentioned how difficult the game was without Baldwin, who went down with a right hamstring sprain just 3 minutes into the game.
“We expected this type of game here, it’s always difficult. And then you lose Wade in the first couple of minutes. Some of our point guards are not ready yet. We are waiting for them. We need to be patient with them. This is just the way it is this year,” the coach noted.
Hayes-Davis stepped up with 25 points – the third straight game he had tallied at least 20 points.
“My mindset was just to try to be aggressive. All my threes weren’t going in but just keep going, keep trying and always try to be aggressive and play with determination and play with confidence. That’s what we did and we got the win,” Hayes-Davis said.
“It’s a big win. It was a tough one because we lost our starting point guard. Get well soon to Wade. We don’t know what happened by everyone is sending their wishes for him.”
Marko Guduric had to play more of a point guard role with Baldwin out and he collected 12 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
“We lost Wade in the first minutes of the game so it was not easy, but I am happy that we got the win,” Guduric added.