The visitors were restricted to just 2 points through the first 6 minutes of the third quarter.
Fenerbahce leaned on strong start to second half in win over Virtus
Статьи
3 Минутное чтение
Regular Season
Round 23 of 34
Regular Season
Fenerbahce Beko IstanbulFBB
8875
Virtus Segafredo BolognaVIR
Overview
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A Scottie Wilbekin deep three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer ensured that Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul led by 5 points, 52-47, against Virtus Segafredo Bologna at the interval. Both teams had experienced plenty of joy on offense in the first half, but it was a different story after the break.
Fenerbahce ended up coming away with an 88-75 victory, which gave it the tiebreaker over Virtus, and it first began to take control of the contest at the start of the second half. Baskets that Virtus was able to score in the opening 20 minutes suddenly became a lot harder to come by, with Saras Jasikevicius’s side opening a big lead that became too much for the visitors to overcome.
The decisive moment in the game
Nick Calathes and new signing Amine Noua, who made his Fenerbahce debut in Round 23, allowed the hosts to go 56-47 ahead, before Daniel Hackett hit back for Virtus, 56-49. It took Virtus 2:09 minutes to score its first basket of the second half, then it would take almost 4 minutes for Luca Banchi’s squad to score again. Prior to Isaia Cordinier scoring with 3:56 remaining in the quarter, Fenerbahce had swelled its lead to 64-49.
By the time the third quarter was over, Fenerbahce had outscored Virtus 19-9 to take a 71-56 lead into the final period. Virtus then started to pick it up on offense, cutting the deficit to 8 points on two occasions in the first half of the fourth, but Fenerbahce always had the talent on offense to fire back again.
In fact, Fenerbahce looked on course to secure a 16-point win, 88-72, but Georgios Papagiannis fouled Cordinier on a three-pointer, with the Frenchman making all 3. That proved to be the final score as Fenerbahce secured an 88-75 win, which means the team is 8-2 since Coach Jasikevicius was appointed and is now firmly positioned in the playoff spots.
“Defensively, it was a tale of two halves,” reflected Jasikevicius. “In the first, we were not playing good defense, only surviving on great offense. In the second half, we turned it around, started picking it up a bit physically, stole some balls, pushed them out of their positions by denying the wings and so on. It’s a great performance by our team in the second half.”
Perhaps Thursday night’s victory will be a good example of the type of defense Fenerbahce can play once the playoffs roll around. Certainly, there’s no team in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague that would look forward to facing Jasikevicius’s squad.