The visitors came back from down 9 with 4 and a half minutes left in regulation
Fenerbahce pulls off 91-95 OT Game 1 win in Monaco
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul rallied from 14 points down to steal home-court advantage from AS Monaco with a 91-95 overtime victory in Game 1 of the best-of-five playoff series. Fenerbahce buried 3 three-pointers in overtime to grab control of the game. Nigel Hayes-Davis led the way with 19 points, Nick Calathes had 17 points and Nathan Sestina scored 16 points. Fenerbahce grabbed its first opening game of a playoffs series since 2018-19, which was the fifth of five consecutive seasons of taking Game 1 and advancing to the Final Four.
Fenerbahce will look to take a 2-0 lead in the series with Game 2 coming Friday. Monaco got 51 points from the trio of Elie Okobo (19 points), Jordan Loyd (16) and Mike James (16) but they were not enough. Monaco, which had won 12 of its last 13 games, also lost Game 1 of its playoffs series last season at home against Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv before advancing to the Final Four.
Monaco’s defense held Fenerbahce in check early while the hosts drained 2 three-pointers and converted 2 three-point plays in opening a 14-4 lead. A second Donatas Motiejunas triple increased the Monaco advantage to 21-8. The home side drained a fourth three-pointer to lead 26-15 after 10 minutes.
Okobo took over in the second quarter with 6 points to help Monaco push the lead to 34-20. Fenerbahce answered with the next 5 points and Sestina later scored 8 straight points - with 2 three-pointers - to help trim the gap to 42-35. Monaco went into the break ahead 46-37.
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Fenerbahce picked up its defense intensity in the second half and drained back-to-back triples to get within 47-45. The guests went 3 minutes without a score until another Sestina triple and it was 52-51 after Marko Guduric’s three-point play. Monaco was able to stay ahead the rest of the quarter though Calathes hit a long three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to make it 61-60.
Calathes’s free throws to start the final frame put Fenerbahce ahead 61-62. Monaco held Fenerbahce without a basket for the first 5 minutes of the fourth quarter with an 11-1 run for a 72-63 cushion. Tyler Dorsey answered with back-to-back triples in a 4-17 Fenerbahce run with Hayes-Davis’s three-point play making it 76-80 with 90 seconds left. Jaron Blossomgame countered with a triple and Alpha Diallo put the hosts back up 81-80 with 2 free throws with 45 seconds remaining. After Calathes split free throws to tie the game and Monaco came up empty, Marko Guduric missed the final shot at the buzzer and the game went to overtime tied 81-81.
Calathes and Hayes-Davis drained back-to-back triples to put Fenerbahce up 82-87. Sestina followed from long range and the visitors were up 86-94 with 72 seconds to play. Monaco could not get closer than 4 points the rest of the way.