At points, the unprepared Olympiacos was defeated by the strongest Fenerbahce in its Euroleague premiere: 82-71 in Istanbul. The two teams met last year in the minor final in Berlin.
The Turks led 24-15, but a recovering Shaquille McKissic tied the game at 28-28 with a pair of baskets. Luka Vildosa made it 32-36 just before the break and the difference reached 6 points (36-42) before Fenerbahce fought back with an 11-0 run. The Piraeus stayed in the game with Moses Wright as the protagonist and overtook again with a three-pointer by Evan Fournier: 52-56.
Filip Petrusev put a personal crescendo to halt the Turks’ run from 62-56, but a 65-65 tie was the last glimmer. Fener escaped with a new 8-0 run and reached the victory without stress. In the final, an episode was threatened between the two coaches.
Tyler Dorsey, who was honored before the game for his performance last year in Fenerbahce, finished the game with 6 points. Fournier scored 5 points in his Euroleague debut, while Wright led the way with 15, McKissick added 13 and Sasha Vezenkov 11.
Giorgos Bartzokas used Walkup 2, Williams-Goss 6, Vildosa 2, Papanikolaou, Peters 2, Petrusef 9. Absent were the injured Fall and Milutinov, who are expected to return in 2-3 weeks.
From Fenerbahce of Sarunas Jasikevicius, the former “red and white” Wade Baldwin was the leader with 19 points and 7 assists. Hayes-Davis 15, Colson 10, Marjanovic 8, Sanli 7 also distinguished themselves.
Scotty Wilbekin played little and left with a potentially serious knee injury. Jose Mourinho was among the 14,000 spectators.
Panathinaikos defeated Alba Berlin relatively easily yesterday with 87-77, in the same stadium where they won their seventh European trophy last May. The leaders of the “greens” were Nan 16, Lessor 14, Hernangomet 11, Sloukas 10.
Among the teams that started with a loss are last year’s finalists Real (97-89 by Bayern), Barcelona (74-67 by Zalgiris) and Partizan (88-82 by Baskonia). Next week, Panathinaikos will host Bayern in the renovated OAKA and Olympiacos will host Zalgiris in SEF.
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