The Monegasque side secured a statement win in Round 25.
John Brown led Monaco's comeback victory against Fenerbahce
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Regular Season
Round 25 of 34
Group Regular Season
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AS Monaco grabbed its 15th victory of the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season on Friday night, having rallied from a 13-point deficit to beat Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 76-69. It did a great defensive job after the break, led by power forward John Brown, and came away with a good-as-gold win.
Fenerbahce led 36-44 at halftime, doing plenty of things really well. Johnathan Motley and Scottie Wilbekin each had scored in double digits for the visitors and combined for 21 first-half points. The guests hit 11-of-18 two-point shots (61.1% 2FG) before the break and outrebounded Monaco 13-22, in addition to having 8 assists and 7 turnovers.
Brown inspired Monaco on defense
Monaco came back to the floor with an entirely different mentality after the break as an inspired Brown seemed to be everywhere on both ends. The 32-year-old had drawn 2 offensive fouls before the interval, but went on to get 4 more in the second half. He drew 7 fouls in the game and 6of them were charges on the defensive end.
Brown did much more than that, getting critical rebounds, hitting mid-range jumpers and put-back layups, and providing intangibles like character, intensity and a fighting spirit. In the end, he finished the contest with 15 points on 7-of-9 two-pointers, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a PIR of 26.
Of course, after the final buzzer, Brown was highly praised by Monaco head coach Sasa Obradovic and teammate Elie Okobo, who finished the game with 16 points. As usual, Mike James led the way with 23 points and 6 steals.
Fenerbahce ended up scoring 25 second-half points, hitting 4-of-9 two-pointers (44.4% 2FG), being outrebounded 15-14 and recording just 6 assists and as many as 13 turnovers; its 20 turnovers were a season high. Before tonight, Fenerbahce had not committed more than 16 turnovers in a EuroLeague game this season. In Round 25, 6 of those 20 were from Brown's offensive fouls drawn.
"I would say that we won this with full emotion and a great heart, especially John Brown, who gave us an unbelievable kick defensively," Coach Obradovic said. "I am very happy, we knew it was going to be this kind of game until the end. We continue dreaming big! We improve from game to game and find someone else to help the team, and this is the full strength of the team."
"We knew it was going to be a tough matchup and we saw what John Brown did defensively. He did an amazing job. I don't know how many charges he got us but it was amazing!" Okobo said. "And we followed his lead defensively. That gave us confidence on offense and we made tough shots, and Mike [James] did amazing as well. All the team, overall, did really good."