Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade pleased its fans with an 87-56 home victory over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul, showing its point guard depth, which was the key to this win.
Teodosic, Yago made the difference in Round 8
Fenerbahce came into this game without four rotation players and Zvezda also faced early injury problems when starting point guard Shabazz Napier left the game 68 seconds after the tip-off.
Yago dos Santos immediately came off the bench and made things happen, feeding Joel Bolomboy for an alley-oop slam, getting a steal that allowed Luka Mitrovic to dunk at the other end and hitting a three-pointer that gave Zvezda a 22-13 margin. Late in the first quarter, Milos Teodosic came off the bench and immediately delivered, sinking a three-pointer over center Georgios Papagiannis to fix the score at 25-16 after 10 minutes.
Teodosic does not need much to get going, and soon added his second three-pointer to break the game open, 35-19. Teodosic and dos Santos combined for 22 first-half points. When Teodosic found Bolomboy for a buzzer-beating layup, Zvezda led 45-26 at the break.
Zvezda had to face more point guard injury struggles, as dos Santos hit a floater but fell down awkwardly, leaving the game for good. Teodosic kept pacing Zvezda without needing to send any of his trademark impossible assists to dominate the game. This time, he had 18 points in less than 20 minutes, burying 4 of his 5 attempts from beyond the arc.
"It is a good victory. We played good, so that's the way we need to play in the future, to play hard on defense," Teodosic said after the game. "We are talented and can score against anybody. We need to be more focused on our defense in every game."
Asked about his great performance, Teodosic reminded everyone it is not him, but Zvezda getting wins: "I don't like to talk about myself. This is a team game, a team win, and I am really happy that I am a part of this group of people, great persons and great players."
Nemanja Nedovic had a strong all-around performance, finishing the game with 12 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Zvezda ended up with 18 assists and just 10 turnovers. On the other hand, Fenerbahce had 13 assists and 12 turnovers. Three-point shooting was the other key to the game: Zvezda buried 13 of 27 shots from downtown (48.1%) and Fenerbahce hit just a third of its 24 attempts from beyond the arc.
"The night belongs to Zvezda," Fenerbahce head coach Dimitris Itoudis said after the game. "Unfortunately, we were not up to the potential we have, to the situation required, so congratulations to Zvezda."
Both teams return to action on Thursday. Fenerbahce stays in Belgrade to face Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall. Zvezda visits Olympiacos Piraeus.