Bonzie Colson and Wade Baldwin starred for the victors
Fenerbahce outlasts Efes to take Istanbul derby, 78-83



Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul claimed local derby bragging rights with a 78-83 victory over Anadolu Efes Istanbul on Thursday, keeping Coach Saras Jasikevicius’s team perfect at 2-0 while Efes slipped to 1-1.
Fenerbahce stormed into a 15-point lead in the second quarter but Efes pushed hard to tie it up with 2 minutes remaining, before three-pointers from Marko Guduric and Arturs Zagars settled the outcome. Bonzie Colson led the winning team’s scoring with 16 points, while Wade Baldwin netted 15, Nigel Hayes-Davis and Zagars scored 11 and Khem Birch had 10 points and 8 rebounds. Dan Oturu led Efes’s resistance with 21 points, and Elijah Bryant scored 15 before being ejected.
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Sertac Sanli started strong by striking from deep and Bryant responded with a three-point play in the closely contested early stages. Colson also hit a three, but Oturu buried a layup and one for an 8-8 tie. Guduric hit another Fener triple, but Oturu again made a three-point play, 13-13. Colson hit two quickfire threeballs, one of them a four-point play, and Zagars added another deep strike, before Shane Larkin beat the first-quarter buzzer to make it 21-27 after 10 minutes.
Fener started the second quarter strong with Tarik Biberovic and Zagars on target, moving ahead 21-33. Rodrigue Beaubois boosted Efes with a steal and score, but Biberovic hit a three-pointer in a low-scoring phase of the game. Birch’s free throws capped a 2-11 run, before Vincent Poirier threw down an alley-oop slam. Baldwin netted from mid-range and Hayes-Davis added a triple, 29-45. Larkin’s free throws were bettered by another Hayes-Davis three, before Beaubois and Bryant finally hit Efes’s first triples to make it 37-46 at the break.
Hayes-Davis and Baldwin struck from deep to start the second half with a 37-52 Fener lead, before Darius Thompson and Derek Willis reduced the margin to 48-56. Biberovic scored a tough layup but then got into a physical altercation with Bryant immediately after the basket, and both players were ejected. Beaubois struck from deep but Zagars replied with a driving layup, and it was 51-60 after three quarters.
Stanley Johnson’s triple gave Efes hope, but Baldwin responded with a pair of triples for a 54-68 lead. Jordan Nwora and Oturu were on target as the hosts kept trying to fight, but Birch delivered another double-digit lead midway through the fourth, 61-72. Larkin’s triple, Oturu’s three-point play and Beaubois’s corner three made it 72-74 with three minutes left, Nwora struck from mid-range to tie it up, 74-74, but Guduric and Zagars were accurate from deep to seal the deal.