2018-19Regular SeasonRound 20
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 90
Olympiacos Piraeus 75
January 24, 2019 CET: 18:30
Local time: 20:30 ULKER SPORTS AND EVENT HALL

Green, Muhammed lead Fenerbahce past Olympiacos

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul remained undefeated at home this season in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague by downing Olympiacos Piraeus 90-75 in a rematch of the 2017 EuroLeague championship game on Thursday. Fenerbahce improved to 18-2 to keep its spot atop the standings. Olympiacos is fifth with a 12-8 record. Erick Green paced the winners with 17 points, Nikola Kalinic added 16, Ali Muhammed tallied 13 points and 10 assists and Kostas Sloukas scored 12 for Fenerbahce. Janis Timma led Olympiacos with 14 points, Janis Strelnieks added 13, Nikola Milutinov had 11 and Vassilis Spanoulis 10 for the visitors. Fenerbahce led 21-15 after 10 minutes, extended its margin to 40-28 at halftime and then again to 68-54 at the end of the third quarter en route to a well-deserved win.

Kostas Papanikolaou got Olympiacos going with a couple of three-pointers, but Kalinic and Muhammed allowed Fenerbahce to quickly tie it at 6-6. Ahmet Duverioglu dunked and Muhammed struck from downtown on a 9-0 run that gave Fenerbahce a 15-6 margin. Strelnieks buried a triple, Milutinov dunked and a floater by Nigel Williams-Goss got Olympiacos within 17-13. Kalinic and Marko Guduric scored around the basket, but a layup by Zach LeDay fixed the score at 21-15 after 10 minutes. Timma downed consecutive three-pointers early in the second quarter and a layup by LeDay tied it at 23-23. Sloukas scored in penetration and Vesely hit a jumper in a 9-0 run that Muhammed capped with a bomb from downtown, good for a 32-23 Fenerbahce lead. Georgios Bogris scored down low, but a dunk by Joffrey Lauvergne and back-to-back baskets by an unstoppable Muhammed made it a double-digit game, 38-27. Luigi Datome buried a step-back jumper and a free throw by Williams-Goss kept Olympiacos within 40-28 at halftime. Lauvergne and Duverioglu took over with respective dunks, which prompted the Reds to call timeout at 44-28, shortly after the break. Duverioglu dunked again, but Milutinov did better with a three-point play. Kalinic and Axel Toupane traded corner triples and free throws by Spanoulis got Olympiacos a bit closer, 49-36. Vesely stepped up with a wild layup-plus-foul and three-pointers by a red-hot Green and Sloukas broke the game open, 61-39. Toupane and Green exchanged three-pointers. After Nicolo Melli hit a jumper, Milutinov and Spanoulis got their team within 68-54 after 30 minutes. Sloukas took over with a driving layup early in the fourth quarter. Timma buried his fourth triple and followed Papanikolaou's free throws with a dunk that made it 72-61 with 7 minutes left. Guduric hit a critical three-pointer and Muhammed added a jumper that caused Olympiacos to stop the game at 77-63. Kalinic followed a layup with a three-pointer that sealed the outcome, 82-68, with 3 minutes remaining.

Pivotal performer

Erick Green had not reached double digits in scoring in the entire season, but showcased his shooting skills against Olympiacos. He finished the game with 17 points on perfect shooting with 1 two-point shot, 4 from downtown and 3 free throws. He added 2 rebounds and an assist for a performance index rating of 20 in just 16 minutes.

Game-changing moment

A layup by LeDay tied it at 23-23, but Ali Muhammed caught fire late in the first half. He had 7 points in a 17-4 run in which everyone contributed - Sloukas, Lauvergne, Datome, Vesely. That outstanding team effort at both ends of the floor gave Fenerbahce a double-digit lead, 40-28, and full control of the game after that.

Stellar stat

Fenerbahce shot the ball with excellent percentages from all distances - 68.6% (24 of 35) inside the arc, 56.3% (9 of 16) from downtown and 100% (15 of 15) from the foul line. The latter was its second-best mark in the competition. It previously made 25 free throw attempts without a miss against Zalgiris Kaunas on March 9, 2018.

Did you notice?

Fenerbahce won its 12 consecutive home game; it has not lost at home since it played against Unicaja Malaga in last year's regular season finale on April 5, 2018. It is already the second-longest home winning streak in club history; Fenerbahce won 23 consecutive home games from February 2015 through October 2016.

Next game

Both teams return to Turkish Airlines EuroLeague action on Thursday, January 31: Fenerbahce visits FC Bayern Munich at 20:30 CET and Olympiacos hosts FC Barcelona Lassa at 20:00 CET, in a rematch of the 1997 and 2010 EuroLeague title games.

Ali Muhammed - Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul - EB18
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; PERUGA, CARLOS
Attendance: 12821
By Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul21192822
Olympiacos Piraeus15132621
End of Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul21406890
Olympiacos Piraeus15285475
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 GREEN, ERICK 16:48 17 1/1 4/4 3/3   2 2   1       1 1 20
4 MELLI, NICOLO 30:31 6 2/2 0/1 2/2   3 3 3 3 1     4 3 12
10 MAHMUTOGLU, MELIH 3:49               1             1
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 26:17 16 4/7 2/4 2/2   2 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 3 16
16 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 19:11 12 3/6 1/1 3/3 1 1 2 2   2   1 1 2 11
23 GUDURIC, MARKO 15:31 5 1/2 1/2     1 1     1         3
24 VESELY, JAN 18:09 7 2/4   3/3   1 1 1 2 2     5 3 5
32 GULER, SINAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
35 MUHAMMED, ALI 25:26 13 4/5 1/3 2/2   2 2 10 1 2     2 2 21
44 DUVERIOGLU, AHMET 9:08 8 4/4     2 1 3     2     2 1 8
70 DATOME, LUIGI 13:50 4 2/2 0/1     3 3 1         2   5
77 LAUVERGNE, JOFFREY 21:20 2 1/2       3 3 1   1     3   1
Team             1 1     2         -1
Totals 200:00 90 24/35 9/16 15/15 3 20 23 20 9 14 1 2 22 15 102
        68.6% 56.3% 100%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
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
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 WILLIAMS-GOSS, NIGEL 16:46 3 1/3 0/2 1/2       3           1 2
6 TOUPANE, AXEL 13:13 8   2/3 2/2 1 1 2 1   1     1 1 9
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 16:36 10 1/2 2/5 2/4       4 2 3     2 2 7
10 TIMMA, JANIS 23:54 14 1/1 4/7     1 1 2   2     2   10
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 30:18 11 3/3   5/5 1 3 4 1   4 1   1 5 17
13 STRELNIEKS, JANIS 23:49 13 2/4 2/4 3/3   4 4 4 1     1 2 3 18
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 2:55     0/1     1 1                
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 19:40   0/3     2 1 3 4   2     1 3 4
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 30:06 8   2/7 2/2   1 1 1   1     1 4 7
17 MANTZARIS, VANGELIS 2:00           1 1               1
31 BOGRIS, GEORGIOS 7:43 2 1/3   0/1                 3 1 -3
32 LEDAY, ZACH 13:00 6 2/3   2/2 1 2 3     1 1   2 2 8
Team           2   2     2          
Totals 200:00 75 11/22 12/29 17/21 7 15 22 20 3 16 2 1 15 22 80
        50% 41.4% 81%
Head coach: BLATT, DAVID

Head Coaches

OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"As I said before the game, it is always special to play against Olympiacos. First of all, because they always prepare for everything that it is important in their game. This means a lot of defensive changes, full-court pressure, traps and sometimes, in some situations, matchup zone. All those things are very, very important in their game. This means we needed to have extra concentration to be ready for that, and they showed it also today, fighting from the first until the last second. Because of all that, I believe that we played a very good game and I am really very proud of the game that my team played today. We were really focused and in this level of competition, it is logical that you have ups and downs sometimes, but I believe that our aggressiveness defensively gave us a lot of good things. Congratulations to my players for one more good game and of course, thanks to our fans for a wonderful night. I hope we will continue to have this in the future. We beat an excellent team."
BLATT, DAVID
Olympiacos Piraeus
"Congratulations to Fenerbahce. They played a really good game. Because of the schedule in the Turkish League, last week was the All-Star Game, I think they had a good chance to prepare, certainly more time that we did, physically as well as tactically, and came to the game in a better way than we did and showed it in the game. A team like that, and it is good enough to begin with, with an extra week to prepare, that is significant. In a 30-game season, you are going to have a couple of games when things just don't go well. That's one of the few games in which we just did not play well. There is not a lot more to it. We need to go back home, go back to the drawing board, improve what we need to improve on and move forward. One of the key factors to any game is turnovers and we certainly had more than our share. That is one of the things that needs to be addressed and discussed, as I said, when we go home."

Players

GREEN, ERICK
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"It is a huge game for me to get some confidence. My teammates and my coaches have been helping me and I knew it was a matter of time. I have to keep focusing, keep grinding it out and try to keep getting better every single day - that's the goal. I love it here. It is something that I definitely had to adjust to. I am used to always having the ball and doing things, but here, you just have to fit in. This team is unbelievable, we have so many different weapons and I love being here, playing with the guys and for Coach. It's great."
MUHAMMED, ALI
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"I feel good. I am just happy that we were able to win tonight. Olympiacos is a really good team and David Blatt is a great coach. We just happened to come out with the energy to win. [Spanoulis] is just another player. I come in and try to do my job and play hard defense."
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