2020-21Regular SeasonRound 24
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 92
Zenit St Petersburg 84
February 05, 2021 CET: 18:45
Local time: 20:45 ULKER SPORTS AND EVENT HALL

De Colo fires Fener to ninth straight win

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul used a big fourth quarter to make it nine wins in a row by overcoming visiting Zenit St Petersburg 92-84 on Friday night. An extremely closely contested first half saw Fenerbahce hold a narrow interval lead, 47-43. The home team briefly moved further ahead after the break but Zenit bounced back to make it 66-65 with ten minutes remaining. Zenit briefly moved ahead early in the fourth, but a 13-0 run sent Fener in front for good. Nando De Colo led the home side with 24 points and 7 assists, while Marko Guduric added 19 points and Jan Vesely scored 16. Will Thomas led Zenit with 21 points, with KC Rivers (14), Billy Baron (13), Arturas Gudaitis (11) and Kevin Pangos (10) also scoring in double figures. Fenerbahce is now back in the playoffs places at 14-10, while Zenit drops to 13-9 after three straight losses.

Rivers and Guduric got the scoreboard moving from long-range, before Andrey Zubkov and Vesely scored inside. Thomas and Rivers again were also on target for long range for Zenit, but De Colo answered likewise and Vesely’s free throws gave Fener its first lead, 12-11. Rivers and De Colo stayed hot, before Thomas and Lorenzo Brown traded triples. Pangos and De Colo both dived through to score in penetration, and Thomas made his third three-pointer to tie it, 23-23. Thomas then made a tough turnaround jumper as the first quarter finished 25-25. Baron’s triple opened the second quarter but Jarell Eddie’s threeball forced another tie. Mateusz Ponitka hit a fadeaway before Guduric made a pair of triples to send Fenerbahce back in front, 36-34. De Colo free throws gave Fener the biggest lead of the game, 40-35, but Gudaitis scored three times under the basket to boost Zenit. Guduric added another three-pointer and De Colo netted twice in penetration, making it 47-43 at the break.

A three-pointer from Rivers opened the third quarter, but De Colo and Danilo Barthel kept Fenerbahce ahead. Pangos also struck from deep but Vesely bettered that with a big slam and a pair of mid-range strikes, making it 58-55 despite two scores from Thomas. Edgaras Ulanovas netted twice inside to make it 64-56, but a mid-range floater and a three-pointer from Baron helped bring back Zenit to 66-65 at the end of the third. Baron hit another triple at the start of the fourth, but Guduric made sure Fener was soon back in front with his own long-range strike. Vladimir Trushkin and Zubkov scored inside, and Trushkin added a mid-range score as Zenit surged to 69-74. Melih Mahmutoglu rescued Fener with a corner three, and De Colo’s layup-and-one restored the host’s lead, 75-74 with 6 minutes left. De Colo and Vesely then combined for an alley-oop before De Colo struck a triple, and Vesely added free throws to make it 82-74 after a 13-0 run. Dyshawn Pierre scored 4 points to make it a double-digit game, and Guduric added a driving score. Zenit battled back through free throws to make it 88-84 inside the final minute, but Mahmutoglu and Guduric scored in transition to seal the deal.

Fast start from deep

Both teams started hot from long range, making a combined 8 of their first 9 three-point attempts, including two for KC Rivers and three for Will Thomas. That pace could not be continued, but Fener finished with an excellent 10-of-18 from long-range (55.6%) including 5-of-7 for Marko Guduric, while Zenit could only manage 11-of-30 (36.7%).

Close contest before the break

The first half was incredibly closely fought, with the opening 17 minutes seeing the teams separated by more than 3 points only once – for a 25-second spell midway through the first quarter when Zenit briefly led 7-11.

Using the ball well

Both teams moved the ball well and took care of it: Fenerbahce had 22 assists with 10 turnovers, while Zenit had 18 assists and only 6 turnovers.

Milestones for Zenit stars

Two Zenit players reached personal milestones: Thomas, whose 21 points were a career high, exceeded 1000 points in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, while Rivers moved past 300 converted three-pointers in the competition.

Next round

After the bye week Fenerbahce will be back in action with another home game, taking on ALBA Berlin on Friday 19 February. Zenit has an earlier return, hosting Panathinaikos OPAP Athens on Wednesday 17 February in a rearranged Round 6 meeting.

Nando de Colo - Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul - EB20
Friday, February 5, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; RYZHYK, BORYS; KARDUM, LUKA
Attendance: 300
By Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul25221926
Zenit St Petersburg25182219
End of Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul25476692
Zenit St Petersburg25436584
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 BROWN, LORENZO 15:56 5 0/2 1/4 2/2   1 1 5   1     2 1 4
5 PEREZ, ALEX 0:17                              
8 GUDURIC, MARKO 30:04 19 2/3 5/7   1 5 6 4   2     4 3 23
10 MAHMUTOGLU, MELIH 9:28 5 1/1 1/2     1 1     1     1   3
11 O'QUINN, KYLE BRANDON 7:10   0/1     2 1 3 1   1     3   -1
19 DE COLO, NANDO 31:30 24 5/7 2/4 8/9   3 3 7   4     5 8 28
21 PIERRE, DYSHAWN 24:01 8 2/3   4/4   3 3     1     2 2 9
22 BARTHEL, DANILO 4:42 2 1/1                     2 1 1
24 VESELY, JAN 31:51 16 6/10   4/5   2 2 4         3 4 18
31 EDDIE, JARELL 20:58 3 0/2 1/1     1 1 1     1       4
44 DUVERIOGLU, AHMET 6:43 2 1/1     1   1               3
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 17:20 8 3/4   2/2 2 1 3 1         3 1 9
Team             2 2     1         1
Totals 200:00 92 21/35 10/18 20/22 6 20 26 23 0 11 1 0 25 20 102
        60% 55.6% 90.9%
Head coach: KOKOSKOV, IGOR
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Zenit St Petersburg
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 RIVERS, KC 27:12 14 1/4 4/7   2   2     1     4 1 6
3 ZAKHAROV, DENIS 7:22     0/1         2         1 1 1
4 PANGOS, KEVIN 26:33 10 1/1 1/6 5/6   1 1 7 1 2     3 5 13
7 FRIDZON, VITALY 0:21                              
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 3:40     0/1                 1     -2
10 THOMAS, WILL 29:25 21 4/8 3/6 4/4 4 2 6 3 1       1 3 26
12 BARON, BILLY 15:39 13 1/3 3/5 2/2   2 2           4 2 9
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON 5:49 2 1/1               1     2   -1
16 TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV 6:16 4 2/2 0/1                       3
20 ZUBKOV, ANDREY 17:34 5 2/2 0/1 1/2 2   2 2         2 1 6
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 33:18 4 2/4 0/2     4 4 3   1     2 6 10
77 GUDAITIS, ARTURAS 26:51 11 3/6   5/6 1 4 5 1 2 1     2 6 18
Team           4 1 5     1         4
Totals 200:00 84 17/31 11/30 17/20 13 14 27 18 4 7 0 1 21 25 93
        54.8% 36.7% 85%
Head coach: PASCUAL, XAVI

Head Coaches

KOKOSKOV, IGOR
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
“This is a very good Zenit team, they play with a lot of confidence and they changed the game. In coaching slang we say they ‘jumped the game’ with their zone defense in the first couple of possessions, protecting their guards. It took us a while to regroup and get organised better. We keep saying we have to defend to run and we didn’t find those stops in the first half. A lot of mental mistakes, and we didn’t close the game well in crunch time. In critical times we were turning over the ball way too easily. We have to be smarter, we have to play hard and smart to close games like this. But credit to the players, they are competing and fighting, and we’ll take it. The only thing we care about is scoring one point more than the other team. Sometimes you can control the pace of the game, but we don’t care. We can play slow or fast, as long as we’re winning games we’re fine.”
PASCUAL, XAVI
Zenit St Petersburg
“Congratulations to Fenerbahce. We played a serious game, and tried to do our best on defense and offense. We tried to control the rhythm of the game, but Fenerbahce is in excellent shape right now and playing very good basketball. They played very well with amazing shooting numbers. We were inside the game until the last few minutes, when we missed some open shots after the three-point shot in the corner from Mahmutoglu changed the game. We are waiting for the final papers for Tarik Black to arrive, and we are also waiting for Alex Poythress to come back. Without him we have a lack of athleticism.”

Players

GUDURIC, MARKO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
“They played really well, they scored so many tough shots. It was not easy but we did a better job defensively in the second half and that made a difference. We just need to be careful, especially myself – I made two really stupid turnovers but I’m glad we won the game. We have to play this way and hopefully keep winning. Every game is precious and important in EuroLeague, especially here. We were able to protect our home court and that’s huge.”
DE COLO, NANDO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
“Another win. This is the most important thing. We need to keep working. We are in a good way, and just playing together is what we did tonight again. Zenit is a really good team, they play really strong. In the first half we followed too much their rhythm, they put a zone defense to slow down our rhythm. In the second period we played more aggressive on defense and got more energy on offense.”