Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul pounded Khimki Moscow Region 76-107 on Thursday at Arena Mytishchi to win its eighth straight game and cement its place in the playoff zone.
Fenerbahce pounds Khimki to extend streak
Game Report
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Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul pounded Khimki Moscow Region 76-107 on Thursday at Arena Mytishchi to win its eighth straight game and cement its place in the playoff zone. Khimki's shorthanded frontline had no answers for Fenerbahce, whose 85.3% shooting on two-pointers (29 for 34) was the second-highest in EuroLeague history. Nando De Colo led six Fenerbahce scorers in double figures with 18 points. Lorenzo Brown scored 17 and dished 6 assists, Jan Vesely added 15 points, Marko Guduric and Dyshawn Pierre netted 14 each and Jarell Eddie had 10. The victory lifted Fenerbahce's record to 13-10. Alexey Shved powered the Khimki attack with 29 points and 5 assists and Evgeny Voronov added 11. The loss was Khimki's 15th in a row, dropped its record to 2-21 and formally eliminated the team from playoff contention.
Shved fed Vladislav Sharapov for the latter's first EuroLeague basket on Khimki's first possession. Guduric took charge with a pair of layups and a triple in surging ahead 5-9. Vyacheslav Zaytsev and Shved stepped up to send the hosts back ahead. Vesely scored on back-to-back possessions as the visitors grabbed a 17-19 edge. Errick McCollum banked in a three before free throws by Eddie ended the first quarter with Fenerbahce up 22-23. Voronov's basket-plus-foul and Janis Timma's three-pointer started Khimki's second quarter on the right foot. Lorenzo Brown sank free throws and a pair of layups in a 0-7 run to give Fenerbahce a 28-30 advantage. Brown added a dunk and Vesely scored twice as the lead grew. De Colo capped what became a 0-11 run with a layup for a 32-45 cushion. Threes by Shved and McCollum gave Khimki hope, but Khimki continued to score fluidly. Shved's three on the halftime buzzer sent the teams to the locker room with the scoreboard reading 44-53.
Back-to-back-to-back threes by Guduric, Edgaras Ulanovas and De Colo to start the second half stretched the difference to 18. Even though Shved continued to fire up threes, De Colo's next triple took the margin to 20 and Vesely's and-one made it 47-70 midway through the third quarter. De Colo pushed the lead to 25 and it reached 29 on a basket-plus-foul by Brown. Evgeny Voronov's three-point play ended the third quarter at 57-83. Sergey Monia banked in a three to open the fourth-quarter scoring and he later added a baseline jumper. Shved sprinkled in another three, but Fenerbahce continued to match the home team. Fenerbahce reached 100 points on a corner three by Brown with a little more than 3 minutes remaining and the lead peaked at 69-104 on Pierre's windmill dunk as the visitors closed out the win in style.
A near record
By making 29 of 34 two-pointers, Fenerbahce's 85.3% shooting was the second-best in EuroLeague history, trailing only a remarkable 87.5% (28 of 32) by Panathinaikos Athens against EWE Baskets Oldenburg in November 2009. Fenerbahce set a club record with a performance index rating of 155, which is tied for the ninth-best in competition history. Fenerbahce tied its best-ever with 107 points, too.
Climbing the charts
Jan Vesely continued his climb on the all-time charts with a strong all-around game. He moved into a tie with Mirza Begic for ninth place in EuroLeague history when he recorded his 162nd career block. Vesely also grabbed 2 offensive rebounds to break a tie – at least temporarily – with CSKA Moscow center Nikola Milutinov for the sixth-most. Vesely is up to 461 – and trails Othello Hunter of Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv by 2 for fifth place.
Alxey Shved also made a dent on the all-time scoring charts, blowing past Kyle Hines (2,617 career points) for 12th place. He raised his career tally to 2,639 points and now trails Marcus Brown by 100 points for 11th place.
Memorable buckets
Two Khimki players will always remember this night for the game in which they scored their first EuroLeague points. Vladislav Sharapov did so for the first basket of the game and finished with 8 points on 4 of 5 shooting, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal in 23:28 of playing time. Dmitrii Kadoshnikov made his second EuroLeague appearance and scored his first points with a layup in the fourth quarter.