Real Madrid wraps up home-court advantage, beats Fenerbahce, 90-75
Real Madrid has locked up home-court advantage in the playoffs after beating Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 90-75 at WiZink Center on Wednesday night. This victory improved Los Blancos to 22-9, while Fenerbahce dropped to 18-13 and will have to wait before booking its place in the postseason.
Dzanan Musa paced Real with a team-high 16 points. Vincent Poirier and Adam Hanga added 11 points apiece, while Mario Hezonja was the fourth Real player to reach double figures, scoring 10 points. For Fenerbahce, Nigel Hayes-Davis led the way with a game-high 17 points, followed by Nick Calathes with 12 and Marko Guduric with 10.
Game Videos
It was an interesting start to the game as both teams tried to figure each other out, yet foul trouble quickly became an issue, with Walter Tavares of Real and Johnathan Motley of Fenerbahce having to go to the bench with 2 fouls apiece at the midway mark of the first quarter. Fenerbahce led 11-12 when Motley made his way off the floor, but Real managed to nudge its way in front, 18-17, with 2:52 remaining. At that point, Marko Guduric also had to make his way to the sidelines after having 2 first-quarter fouls to his name. Real managed to keep Fenerbahce at arm's length, ending the quarter with a narrow 3-point lead, 24-21.
In the second quarter, however, Real made it a 9-point ballgame less than three minutes in, following a Sergio Rodriguez triple, 32-23. Calathes was able to cut the gap to 5 points at the midway point, 33-28, but Petr Cornelie quickly responded with a three-pointer, 36-28. Whenever Fenerbahce looked to lay a glove on Real, the hosts found a way to respond. Cornelie knocked down another shot from deep straight out of a timeout to extend the gap to double digits, 39-28, but a 0-8 run by Fenerbahce allowed it to reduce the deficit to 3 points, 39-36. Yet, Cornelie appeared for the third time in the quarter with another three to make it 45-39. At the halftime break, Real led by 5 points, 49-44.
Fenerbahce had done a good job of staying within reach of Real in the second quarter, but Los Blancos found a way to pull away early in the third. First, Hanga scored a Sergio Llull-esque three-pointer from deep, 52-44, then Guerschon Yabusele dunked with force to make it a 12-point affair, 56-44, inside the opening two minutes. Motley picked up his fourth foul halfway through the quarter when the score was 58-48, and the hosts managed to control the remainder of the third, often finding their way to the free-throw line before Rudy Fernandez and Poirier connecting for a quarter-ending alley-oop dunk, 68-58.
The fourth quarter was less competitive than the previous three, with Fernandez opening a game-high 14-point advantage for Real, 75-61, just a few minutes into the final period. Fenerbahce didn’t give up and had Tarik Biberovic strike from deep, 77-66, to make things interesting, but the game never truly felt in doubt for Los Blancos. In fact, even when Fenerbahce got as close as 8 points, 79-71, with 3:14 left, Real had Fernandez and Hanga score a triple apiece to make it 85-73 and put the win on ice, as the hosts coasted to a 90-75 victory.