The Fenerbahce guard had a bounce-back performance on the road in Berlin
Third-quarter spurt helped Wade Baldwin forget Round 3 disappointment
On Thursday night, Wade Baldwin came into the second game of the double-round week wanting to forget his nightmare Round 3 against Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade. And the Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul guard did just that, helping his team grab a 71-78 road victory at ALBA Berlin.
Baldwin scored 13 points to go with 4 assists as Fenerbahce improved to a 3-1 record. Baldwin struggled a bit shooting the ball, going 3 for 10 from the field, but made 7 of 10 free throws after drawing 6 fouls.
“Everybody needs to feel part of the game. We’re still finding our way,” Baldwin told EuroLeague TV afterward. “We’re a relatively new team. I think we just need to play a little bit faster – find our rhythm, get guys going and have some fun.”
The 28-year-old added 1 steal as he played tough defense on ALBA’s perimeter players and helped Fenerbahce hold ALBA to just 23.1% on three-pointers.
“It was a bit of a slower game. You would expect teams like ALBA Berlin and us to play a little faster,” he added. “The pace was a little slower. But we really dug in on defense, controlled them and didn’t let them get up a lot of three-point attempts, which they like to do. We were grinding away and found a way to get to our spots and execute.”
Baldwin two nights earlier at home was limited to 3 points on 1-of-6 shots and committed 5 turnovers in Fenerbahce¡s loss to Zvezda. The American had tallied 3 points in Game 4 of last year’s playoffs against Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, but he played just 7:25 minutes. The last time he was held to 3 points before that was in Round 17 against Real Madrid in 2022-23, when he was coming back after missing four games.
It looked like he was going to have another subpar game in the German capital as he tallied just one point in the first half, but he came out strong in the third quarter, tallying nine points in the period, including four big points as the lead grew to 12 points after ALBA had trimmed the gap to five points.
Baldwin took a big step in forgetting his poor Round 3 performance, with the guard and Fenerbahce now eager to build on this game heading into next Friday’s clash at home to Panathinaikos.