The reigning champ had to overturn a 16-point deficit to prevail in the French capital
Crazy finale sums up night of intensity as Fener downs Paris
Rapport de match
3 Minute de lecture
Regular Season
Round 27 of 38
Regular Season
Paris BasketballPBB
9092
Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB
Overview
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All the intensity of the EuroLeague was on full display – right until the final seconds – as Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul defended its two-game lead at the top of the standings by grinding out a 90-92 victory at Paris Basketball.
'Hard-fought' doesn’t even begin to describe it. Indeed, the outcome could have easily gone the other way, as a crazy closing sequence of action offered a neat summation of an evening full of blood, sweat and tears in the manner that only the most competitive league in the world can offer.
The game looked almost decided when Talen Horton-Tucker sank free throws to make it 87-91 with 8 seconds remaining. But after a Paris timeout, Nadir Hifi instantly struck his third triple of the night, making it a 1-point game with 6 seconds still on the clock.
It was Fener’s turn to call for a timeout to set up a play and advance the ball, leading to a frantic few seconds: Wade Baldwin throw a hopeful inbounds pass in the direction of Horton-Tucker and Tarik Biberovic. The latter just caught the ball, but was falling out of bounds so he immediately offloaded straight to Paris forward Jeremy Morgan. He sent on a quick pass to Hifi, potentially setting up a game-winning shot, but Hifi couldn’t gather the ball cleanly and it dramatically spilled loose to Horton-Tucker, who was fouled with 0.3 seconds left.
After making the first free throw, Horton-Tucker deliberately missed the second, leaving Morgan with no time to do anything when he gathered the rebound as time expired, condemning Paris to another loss and allowing the reigning champ to escape with a victory from a game in which it had trailed by 16 late in the third quarter.
And at that moment, even visiting coach Saras Jasikevicius didn’t think his team would come away with the win.
“For three quarters we didn’t play the right way,” he admitted in the postgame press conference. “We didn’t slow them down defensively or play patient basketball offensively, we didn’t understand the game plan. I thought when we went 16 down [winning] would not be possible, I was a little bit pessimistic. But it was important to keep on fighting, to make it a game, and we actually did that pretty quickly.”
That key period of the game, when Fener changed a 16-point deficit into a 2-point lead in just over 5 minutes, came during the final stages of the third quarter and the start of the fourth. With victory within its grasp, Paris lost its composure and committed three quick technical fouls, partly explaining why Biberovic was able to score 8 points in a row in the space of 96 seconds, with 5 of those coming from the foul line.
From then on, Fenerbahce’s senior statesmen took over as Biberovic, Horton-Tucker, Baldwin, Nando De Colo and Nicolo Melli steered the ship the rest of the way.
“When we went to a six-, seven-player rotation in the fourth quarter, everything became more clear,” explained the coach. “Wade was running the team really well, we found Tarik and Talen more easily, and everything was difficult for Paris at the end.
“When you make it a game, obviously there’s a lot of experience in our team. We got some big stops, we got some big shots. But we got a little bit lucky, there’s no question.”
One of those ‘big shots’ referred to by Jasikevicius was a smoothly struck corner three by De Colo with 77 seconds remaining, breaking an 83-83 tie and giving the visitors a lead they would never relinquish.
And the veteran backcourt star – making his sixth appearance of his second spell with Fenerbahce – demonstrated all the enthusiasm of an eager rookie as he reflected on the victory.
“It’s always tough to play back-to-back games, we know how the schedule goes, and it’s never easy to win a game in this championship,” said De Colo.
“We didn’t give up, we played as a team, we respected exactly what the coach wants on the court, and we’re really happy with the win. We need to be really happy because every win is important and it’s not easy to play against a team like Paris.
“We have big goals for the season, we work hard every day to make sure we improve our game, so I’m really happy to be part of this team.”
