2020-21Regular SeasonRound 27
AX Armani Exchange Milan 92
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 100
March 03, 2021 CET: 20:45
Local time: 20:45 MEDIOLANUM FORUM

De Colo, Vesely lead Fenerbahce past Milan

In a battle of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague powerhouses, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul returned to winning ways by downing AX Armani Exchange Milan 92-100 at Mediolanum Forum on Wednesday. Fenerbahce improved to 16-11 in the standings and recorded its 11th victory in the last 12 games. Milan dropped to 17-10. Nando De Colo led the winners with 20 points, Lorenzo Brown added 18, DyShawn Pierre and Marko Guduric had 15 apiece while Jan Vesely flirted with a triple-double as he posted 13 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high 8 assists for Fenerbahce. Kevin Punter led Milan with 20 points, Luigi Datome added 16, Shavon Shields 15 and Sergio Rodriguez 13. It all came down to the final 3 minutes, in which Guduric, Vesely and an unstoppable De Colo made the difference down the stretch.

De Colo got Fenerbahce going with a three-pointer and a jumper, getting help from Pierre for a 4-8 lead. Ahmet Duverioglu followed a tip-in with a layup and Vesely dunked, but Michael Roll and Vladimir Micov each struck from downtown and Punter added a three-point play for a 15-14 Milan lead. Pierre, De Colo and Duverioglu kept pacing, the guests but Shields hit a jumper and Kaleb Tarczewski added a couple of three-point plays to boost the hosts' lead to 28-24 after 10 minutes. Kyle O'Quinn struck from beyond the arc and Guduric added a driving basket for a 28-29 Fenerbahce lead. Rodriguez rescued the hosts with back-to-back triples and Datome added another one to give his team fresh air at 39-33. Vesely stepped up with a layup and a couple of alley-oop slams, getting help from Pierre and Danilo Barthel to restore a 41-43 Fenerbahce lead. De Colo took over with a layup-plus-foul and Barthel followed a dunk with a jumper, but Datome, Punter and Jeff Brooks - off an inbounds steal at the halftime buzzer - hit each a triple for a 52-50 Milan lead at the break.

Micov and Guduric joined the three-point shootout soon after the break. Kyle Hines and Shields soon restored a 60-53 Milan lead. Guduric struck twice from beyond the arc, De Colo added back-to-back jumpers and Pierre also struck from downtown in a 0-13 run that gave Fenerbahce a 60-66 edge. Datome sank a corner triple and a catch-and-shoot jumper, but Brown singlehandedly made it a double-digit game, 65-75. Brooks and Rodriguez brought the hosts a bit closer, 69-78, after 30 minutes. Punter hit a three-pointer early in the fourth quarter and soon added a jumper and a dunk off a steal to bring his team within 77-80. Shields followed a jumper with a jump hook that made it 81-82. De Colo buried a triple and fed Vesely for a three-point play to give Fenerbahce fresh air at 81-88. After Rodriguez struck from downtown, Pierre and Shields exchanged baskets. Vesely restored a 86-92 Fenerbahce lead with less than 3 minutes left. Shields dunked off a steal, but Guduric sank free throws and De Colo struck from beyond the arc to seal the outcome, 88-97, in the next-to-last minute.

Pivotal performer

Jan Vesley narrowly missed a triple-double with a sensational all-around performance tonight. He finished the game with 13 points on 5-of-7 two-point shooting and 3-of-3 on free throws, plus 10 rebounds and a career-high 8 assists. he added 2 steals, 1 block and 5 fouls drawn for a PIR of 35.

Game-changing moment

Milan managed to rally from a double-digit deficit to get within 81-82. Nando De Colo took matters into his own hands, hitting a three-pointer and finding Jan Vesely for a three-point play. Fenerbahce never looked back after that, as De Colo kept full control of the situation until the final buzzer.

Stellar stat

Fenerbahce outrebounded Milan 20-35, including 12 offensive boards. It also collected 7 steals and committed just 10 turnovers. In a game in which both teams shot the ball extremely well, hustle made the difference.

Did you know?

Luigi Datome struck from downtown midway through the second quarter to reach the 2,000-point mark in EuroLeague history. He is the 40th player to reach the milestone and the second Italian on this list; Gianluca Basile is the other one, ranking 36th with 2,163 points.

Next game

Both teams return to EuroLeague action later on this week - on Friday, March 5. Milan visits Zalgiris Kaunas. Fenerbahce also plays on the road, facing LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne at the Astroballe.

Jan Vesely - Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul - EB20
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: PUKL,SASA; CORTES, CARLOS; BISSANG, JOSEPH
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
AX Armani Exchange Milan28241723
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul24262822
End of Quarter1234
AX Armani Exchange Milan28526992
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul245078100
AX Armani Exchange Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 PUNTER, KEVIN 30:26 20 5/7 3/6 1/1   2 2   1 1     3 1 15
5 MICOV, VLADIMIR 25:35 8 1/3 2/3     1 1 2   1   1 2 2 6
9 MORASCHINI, RICCARDO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 ROLL, MICHAEL 21:11 5 1/2 1/2     2 2 2           1 8
13 RODRIGUEZ, SERGIO 19:09 13 2/4 3/5     1 1 4   2 1   2 5 16
15 TARCZEWSKI, KALEB 12:51 6 2/2   2/2   1 1     2     3 2 4
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
31 SHIELDS, SHAVON 31:49 14 6/8 0/2 2/2 1 1 2 5 1 2     3 2 15
32 BROOKS, JEFF 9:20 5 1/2 1/1           1 1 1       5
40 EVANS, JEREMY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
42 HINES, KYLE 27:09 5 2/7   1/1 2 2 4 3       1 4 2 4
70 DATOME, LUIGI 22:30 16 2/2 3/6 3/3   6 6 2   1 1   1 1 21
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 92 22/37 13/25 9/9 4 16 20 18 3 10 3 2 18 16 95
        59.5% 52% 100%
Head coach: MESSINA, ETTORE
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
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 19:52 18 4/8 3/3 1/1   1 1 4 1 3   2 1 1 15
8 GUDURIC, MARKO 28:10 15 1/6 3/7 4/4 2 2 4 2   2     4 2 8
11 O'QUINN, KYLE BRANDON 12:53 3 0/1 1/2     1 1   2       2   2
13 BIBEROVIC, TARIK DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
19 DE COLO, NANDO 33:36 20 5/8 3/7 1/1   3 3 4 1 2     2 6 23
21 PIERRE, DYSHAWN 32:06 15 4/5 1/3 4/4 1 3 4 3 1   1     3 24
22 BARTHEL, DANILO 18:02 9 3/4 1/1     4 4 1   1   1 1   10
24 VESELY, JAN 33:36 13 5/7   3/3 4 6 10 8 2   1   2 5 35
25 SIPAHI, KENAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
31 EDDIE, JARELL 7:17                         2   -2
35 MUHAMMED, ALI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
44 DUVERIOGLU, AHMET 14:28 7 3/4   1/2 2 1 3 1   2     2 1 6
Team           3 2 5               5
Totals 200:00 100 25/43 12/23 14/15 12 23 35 23 7 10 2 3 16 18 126
        58.1% 52.2% 93.3%
Head coach: KOKOSKOV, IGOR

Head Coaches

MESSINA, ETTORE
AX Armani Exchange Milan
"It is one of those nights when you just congratulate your opponent. I think we played a good game, with the exception of a few minutes in the third quarter, when we lost our composure on offense and turned the ball over too much. But overall, our offensive numbers were very good and their offensive numbers are even much better. Of course, the rebounds were the key to this game. They scored 3 threes off offensive rebounds in crucial moments. They overall controlled the boards all the time and deserved the win. We cannot expect to win a game allowing 100 points, that's it."
KOKOSKOV, IGOR
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul

"We are pleased with the outcome, it is a great thing that we won the game against a tough team and a great coach, one of the legends, one of the greatest coaches in European basketball, so for us, just leaving this arena with a win, we accomplished why we are here."

"It was a long 40-minute game. We are definitely happy with the outcome of this game. We played a really good team regardless if they are missing Delaney, but sometimes you play your best game without your best players. That didn't really put us in a mode that we didn't come relaxed. We come focused and understood the importance of the game and who we were playing tonight. So the focus was there and energy is always there. We played a veteran team who knows how to punish every mistake that you make defensively and that is what they did. So it was a close game. In the third quarter, I think our response was great. We hit some big shots that definitely helped us. Three-point shooting is not something that is our best part of our game, but I think that those shots that Guduric made in the third quarter, Lorenzo Brown helped us make the separation and obviously in crunch time, we have no doubt that Jan Vesely had a monster game. I congratulated all the guys in the locker room for the effort and execution. A big win for Fenerbahce club."

Players

VESELY, JAN
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"First of all, we had a horrible beginning of the season. We were losing everything by 30 and our last game against Efes, we lost like that. Our mentality was trying to forget about the game at home with Efes and play like we played in the 10 games that we won in a row, so we did that. We fought and stayed together. We made some mistakes in the beginning of the fourth quarter, but we brought it until the end, so I am very happy for the team."