After last week's record-breaking win over Maccabi, Fenerbahce (11-8) will look to continue its momentum against a Partizan (10-9) team eager to bounce back from its Belgrade derby defeat.
Sarunas Jasikevicius, Fenerbahce: 'Huge game for the standings'
Seasons
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 20 of 34
Regular Season
Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB
9176
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
Overview
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November's meeting between the teams was a thriller, with Partizan winning 85-84 behind 15 points from Frank Kaminsky, who faces a good inside battle with Georgios Papagiannis after the Fener center scored 16 points with just one miss in last week's rout. Partizan has lost three out of its last four fixtures, averaging just 74 points in those losses, so home coach Sarunas Jasikevicius will look to again stifle the offense of his old mentor, Zeljko Obradovic.
Sarunas Jasikevicius, Fenerbahce head coach
"It’s a very important game for us because we are playing against a direct opponent. Huge game for the standings. Obviously, probably a very big day for our fans with coach Obradovic coming back and I’m sure that they will show the great respect they have for him. For Partizan, they have a very complete team with players like Punter leading the way and a lot of different tactical and other solutions they can present to you. So we need to be ready to play good basketball and to react first of all on a lot of different things."
Zeljko Obradovic, Partizan head coach
"In the double round of the EuroLeague was last week and we saw two different sides of Fenerbahce. Of course, we will have to prepare for this Fenerbahce who played a phenomenal game against Maccabi. There is a lot of quality in that team. Sarunas came back, changed many things, that is evident. The players are the ones who stayed and have individual qualities, but they are now dedicated to the team play. It is a very demanding game for us, very difficult. It was a difficult game against Fenerbahce in Belgrade, too. Yesterday we had the first serious practice after a long time where we tried to do something smart to possibly look better than we did in the last EuroLeague game."
Sertac Sanli, Fenerbahce player
"After a difficult one, we are starting a new double-week. We will have two crucial games in terms of standings. Partizan is a very good team managed by a very good coach. We will try to fight and win by uniting with our fans until the last minute."
Kevin Punter, Partizan head coach
"We will prepare well, we will go to fight. Defense will be key to success. It will be hard. We need to go into the games with confidence."