A career night from Marko Guduric gave Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul a crucial victory on an emotional evening, with the Turkish team overcoming host Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade 94-97 at Stark Arena.
It was Fenerbahce’s first game in three weeks in the wake of the tragic earthquake in Turkey and Syria, which led to the postponement of its scheduled Round 24 game against EA7 Emporio Armani Milan and all domestic basketball in Turkey.
Fenerbahce was understandably concerned about how it would be able to cope with the intensity of the packed Stark Arena atmosphere following such an unusual and unexpected gap in action, but Guduric never looked anything other than totally comfortable as he led the team with 25 points on 3-of-5 two-point shooting, 4-of-5 from three-point range and 7-of-7 from the foul line. He also dished 7 assists, grabbed 2 rebounds and 2 steals, also drawing 5 fouls to achieve a new career-high PIR of 35 and – unsurprisingly – the highest plus/minus of any player in the game with +12.
Entering the game midway through the first quarter, Guduric quickly made an impact with 2 assists before starting his scoring spree in the second period. He scored 9 points in that second quarter and added 5 more in the third, but reserved his most prolific phase of the game for the decisive final period. After sinking a three-pointer during a 0-9 run to take a 78-84 lead, Guduric then forgot about long-range shooting and focused on driving with intensity to the basket, completing a pair of three-point plays to keep the Partizan defense under constant pressure.
And at the end of a thrilling game, it was perfectly fitting that Guduric had the final say – he drew a foul with 5 seconds remaining and netted twice from the line to make it a two-possession game, extinguishing any Partizan hopes of recovering.
The victory was extra special for Guduric for two reasons. First, it came in his home country of Serbia, in the same city where he started his professional career as a teenager with Partizan’s archrival Crvena Zvezda. Guduric came through Zvezda’s youth ranks and made 53 EuroLeague appearances for the club between 2015 and 2017, also winning back-to-back domestic titles in those two seasons.
And more importantly, the starring role in a vital victory allowed Guduric to spread a little happiness to the hordes of Fenerbahce fans who, as with everybody throughout Turkey, have been devastated by the tragic scenes of the earthquake earlier this month. After the game, he expressed his sympathy for the victim as he summed up the feelings of all his teammates by noting: "For a week nobody talked about basketball. As we all know a lot of people died...it was not easy to see them suffer, but life I guess has to continue. So I just pray for everybody out there."
