Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul grabbed its fifth consecutive road win by downing Valencia Basket 86-93 at La Fonteta on Friday. Both teams now have a 12-14 record and Fenerbahce has the tie-break advantage against Valencia, which beat the Turkish powerhouse in overtime earlier this season.
Williams leads Fenerbahce past Valencia, 86-93
Game Report
1 Min read
Derrick Williams led the winners with 22 points. Luigi Datome and Kostas Sloukas each added 13 while Nando De Colo had 10 for Fenerbahce. Vanja Marinkovic led Valencia with 22 points. Bojan Dubljevic added 15 while Joan Sastre had 11 for the hosts. Joffrey Lauvergne and James Nunnally stepped up early, getting help from an outstanding Datome to give Fenerbahce a 14-21 lead after 10 minutes. Williams took over early in the second quarter but Dubljevic and Marinkovic kept Valencia within 41-47 at halftime. Dubljevic and Marinkovic rescued Valencia and Sastre tied it at 58-58 but Datome and De Colo made Fenerbahce restore a 60-65 lead after 30 minutes. Williams and Jan Vesely made the difference early in the fourth quarter and Sloukas made sure his team kept a safe lead until the final buzzer.
Regular Season
Round 26 of 34
Group Regular Season
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Lauvergne got Fenerbahce going with a baseline jumper, and Nunnally gave the guests a 0-5 lead. Marinkovic struck from downtown and Dubljevic dunked but Datome kept his team ahead. Lauvergne and Nunnally kept pacing Fenerbahce with driving baskets but Marinkovic and Aaron Doornekamp helped Valencia tie it at 12-12. Datome hit his trademark stop-and-pop jumper and Ali Muhammed added a triple for a 14-17 Fenerbahce lead. Malcolm Thomas sank a jump hook which Datome followed with an acrobatic layup to boost the guests' lead to 14-21 after 10 minutes. Mike Tobey followed a put-back slam with a bomb from beyond the arc early in the second quarter. Brock Motum also downed a triple to cap a 8-0 Valencia run, putting the hosts ahead at 22-21. Williams and Sloukas rescued Fenerbahce, combining for 7 quick points. Tobey dunked again and Fernando San Emeterio added a layup-plus-foul, but Williams kept Fenerbahce ahead, 29-33. Quino Colom banked in an off-balance layup and Dubljevic sank a triple but Fenerbahce kept finding go-to guys, as Vesely, Nikola Kalinic, Leo Westermann and De Colo each found their first points for a 34-41 lead. Marinkovic ignited the crowd with consecutive layups, but Muhammed and Williams downed triples to restore a 41-47 halftime edge.
Marinkovic and Colom struck from downtown in an 8-0 run that gave Valencia a 49-47 lead right after the break. Fenerbahce found answers from beyond the arc as Datome, Nunnally and Muhammed each hit a triple for a 53-56 edge. Thomas scored down low but Dubljevic and Sastre helped Valencia tie the game. Datome insisted from beyond the arc and De Colo followed a shot-clock buzzer-beating jumper with a fast break layup to restore a 58-65 Fenerbahce lead, which Sastre cut to 60-65 after 30 minutes. Williams took over with back-to-back show-stopping dunks early in the fourth quarter. Vesely added his own fast break slam and De Colo beat the shot clock buzzer with a floater that boosted Fenerbahce's margin to 65-73. Marinkovic followed a triple with a wild four-point play but Williams and Sloukas each answered from beyond the arc to make it a double-digit game, 72-83. Dubljevic tried to ignite Valencia's comeback with a layup that Sloukas bettered with a triple to seal the outcome, 74-86, with 3 minutes left. The hosts kept trying but Fenerbahce held on to a well-deserved road win.
Game Leaders
Pivotal performer
Derrick Williams did a little bit of everything - three-pointers, outstanding dunks, defense, intensity, character - to make sure Fenerbahce returned to Istanbul with a win. He finished with 22 points on 4-of-4 two-point shots, 4-of-6 three-pointers and 2-of-2 free throws, good for a PIR of 24.
Game-changing moment
Fenerbahce took off in spectacular way early in the fourth quarter. Williams had a couple of outstanding dunks: a two-handed fast break slam and then a one-handed throwdown off the baseline. Jan Vesely copied him with a Statue of Liberty dunk off a behind-the-back assist by James Nunnally. The Nando De Colo beat the shot clock buzzer with a floater that gave Fenerbahce a 65-73 lead. After this wild highlight reel, Fenerbahce kept full control of the game until the final buzzer.
Stellar stat
Fenerbahce shot the ball with excellent percentages and that allowed the Turkish powerhouse to lead most of the way. Fenerbahce hit 21-of-28 two-point shots (75%), 14-of-25 from downtown (56%) and 9-of-10 free throws (90%). Valencia did not shoot the ball poorly (56% 2FG; 45.2% 3FG; 84.2% FT) but Fenerbahce was even more accurate at all times.
Did you notice?
It was a special game for De Colo, who won a 7DAYS EuroCup title with Valencia in 2010 and reached the EuroLeague playoffs with this team in 2011. He also met his wife, Vero Compan, in this city. De Colo finished the game with 10 points, no missed shots, 2 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 fouls drawn for a PIR of 16. He took 16 free throw attempts against Valencia in Round 16, but just 2 tonight.
Zeljko Obradovic, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
“They played without two point guards and another player who is very important to them. Congratulations to Valencia for everything they are doing in EuroLeague, also tonight they played a very good game. But I believe we won the game because we had very good shooting percentages. 75% for two, this is really high. And 56% for three. I believe today we really moved the ball well and for this we had those percentages. I believe many things were good today. It was an important game. We came into the last two minutes leading by 15, but after the last time out, 10-2.”
"It was obvious that it was a very important game for both teams. In this EuroLeague, you need to fight in every game. We have eight more games until the end to try to see in which position we finish. Thinking about the game we played against Valencia in Istanbul, it is an absolutely different game because we had three more big guys tonight - none of them played in the game in Istanbul. The truth is that Valencia was also without two point guards and a very important player in position '2' (Jordan Loyd), so we really tried to understand what is the way we need to play to pressure them and to play a good game. Congratulations to my players for an important victory. You can see I used 11 players tonight, everyone but our captain [Melih Mahmutoglou] because I always have to think about what we have ahead of us. I need fresh minds, fresh legs and it is not easy. On the other hand, if you see our shooting percentages tonight, and the fact, even more important, that everyone who played had at least one assist, that means we played as a team after a long time."
Jaume Ponsarnau, Valencia Basket
"We tried to play with our highest energy, but I think that the key was in the last two seconds of every possession, to play good defense then and reach our highest level on defense. We made a mistake these last seconds but Fenerbahce is a great team and took the best decisions, passing the ball and finding advantages. For us, it is a success in this game to get 7 offensive rebounds and especially that we only had 9 turnovers despite our point guard problems, playing against Fenerbahce, a team whose opponents usually make many turnovers. We tried all game long but probably, in the key moment, they found efficiency and we didn't. This was a week in which we could have worked, improved and grown as a team, but we didn't have all of our players available. We saw players who did well tonight, like Joan Sastre, even when he had some back problems, or Vanja Marinkovic. It is not an excuse but I regret not having everyone available to work this week."
Derrick Williams, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
“It’s a testament to my teammates finding me in good spots. At the end of the day we got the win, that’s the most important thing. It doesn’t matter how many points anybody scores, as long as we get the win. We’re still in the playoffs hunt, that’s what matters. You don’t want to look too far ahead but we have two good teams coming up next week with Red Star and Khimki on the road, so I think we’re ready to take it game by game but at the same time enjoy this win and a big week ahead of us.”
James Nunnally, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
“Backs were against the wall tonight. It was a must win game and we just have to continue playing like this. We played some great basketball, did the little things we weren’t doing before. We watched a lot of film and got to see our mistakes, and hopefully we can build on this.”
Vanja Marinkovic, Valencia Basket
"I think we played a decent game against a good opponent. We didn't answer on defense in key moments of the game and they were better in the second half, especially at shooting. And that's it, we have to move on, fight again for a spot in the playoffs, and we have another game in two days. We have to be ready for that."