Saras Jasikevicius's team has now won 11 of its last 13 games
Fenerbahce shows stuff of champions on De Colo's second debut, overcomes Valencia
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 22 of 38
Regular Season
Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB
8279
Valencia BasketVBC
Overview
w
l
w
w
w
l
l
w
w
w
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul made sure everyone remembered who the defending EuroLeague champion is Friday night.
Welcoming Valencia Basket, one of four teams entering the week with 14 victories, Fenerbahce put on display one of its best performances of the season in the first half and controlled the game until the final two minutes, holding off the visitors for an 82-79 win.
“I enjoyed a lot how we played the first 20 minutes,” coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said after the game. “We played excellent basketball. We were patient, we knew exactly what we wanted to do.”
Valencia’s shiny offense, which entered the game averaging 90.1 points, made five triples in the opening 4:53 minutes of the game. But Fenerbahce stuck to its title-winning ways, opening the contest by making nine two-pointers on as many attempts to take control.
But Fenerbahce did not win this game with its offense. No, it did so with its defense.
When Valencia caught up in the second quarter, the champs turned on its half-court defense, holding the visitors to nearly 7 minutes without a field goal, putting together a 14-1 run to open a 44-31 lead that they never relinquished.
And only thanks to its offensive surge in the final 2 minutes, during which it scored 12 points, with 10 coming from Jean Montero, the visitors finished with a respectable 79 points. But that is still their second-lowest total of the season, and the fewest points they've scored in a road game this season.
And while the final 2 minutes proved how dangerous Valencia truly is, it is also clear that before that late-game lapse, Fenerbahce’s win was never really in doubt.
Part of the secret was Fenerbahce never rushing. The team was not forcing three-point shots, shooting just nine three-point attempts in the first half. Rather, it preferred to attack inside, often late in the shot clock. It was all part of the game plan that tried to slow the tempo down, and Fenerbahce mostly succeeded in it.
“We respected the game plan, we ran when we had an opportunity to run, but we were patient when we had to be. I think this made the difference”, said Nando De Colo, who made his second Fenerbahce debut and looked right at home with a team-high 16 points.
“It wasn’t perfect all the time, but we know Valencia is a talented team. We stayed focused and deserved to win tonight.”
De Colo seemed to fit perfectly into Fenerbahce’s backcourt, and stepped up down the stretch when he shared the floor with four new teammates, all players who played key roles at the 2025 Final Four – Wade Baldwin, Devon Hall, Nicolo Melli and Khem Birch.
The use of that lineup also speaks of the lessons Fenerbahce learned, and the importance this game had.
Because this Fenerbahce team, which has now won 11 of its last 13 games, looks more like the championship-winning side from last season, instead of the one that suffered a thrashing against Valencia in late October. That night, the champs lost by 15 but were down by as many as 24 points as Valencia led from start to finish.
Also, this Fenerbahce showed a ton of respect to Valencia, a team that has already beaten the likes of Olympiacos Piraeus, Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens and Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade on the road this season.
And to their credit, Valencia certainly displayed how dangerous it is, too. Even in a loss, coach Pedro Martinez's men showed that they are the real deal, as they rallied and even had two shots to tie the game in the final 20 seconds.
Coach Jasikevicius will point out that there is a big difference in the performance of his players, especially offensively, from the first to second half, and he'll be aware that those ups and downs need to be minimized going forward. A good 20 minutes of basketball will not be enough to achieve what he and this team have set out to achieve.
“We need to be happy we beat such a good team like Valencia,” he said. “They are playing great basketball. But the next game we have to try to play 23 or 24 good minutes. Until we come to the end of the season, hopefully it is longer than that, because if you want to do something you need to play good for long periods of time.”
