2019-20Regular SeasonRound 24
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 77
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv 78
February 07, 2020 CET: 18:45
Local time: 20:45 ULKER SPORTS AND EVENT HALL

Hunter lifts Maccabi at finish over Fenerbahce

Othello Hunter scored a layup in traffic with 2.6 second left on the clock to lift Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv to a thrilling 77-78 win over Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul on Friday night. The victory lifted Maccabi's record to 16-8 record for a share of all-important fourth place in the standings with CKSA Moscow. Fenerbahce dropped to 11-13. Neither team led by more than 8 points the entire night. They traded leads throughout the first three quarters, before Maccabi pulled away to 63-71 with 6 minutes to go. But Fenerbahce rallied and the game went down to the wire. Fenerbahce led twice by a single point in the final 65 seconds, but Hunter's layup, straight off an inbounds pass from Angelo Caloiaro, sent Maccabi home victorious. Hunter and Deni Avdija were Maccabi's top scorers, each finishing with 13 points. Aaron Jackson had 12 and Quincy Acy 11. Derrick Williams paced Fenerbahce with 22 points to go with 6 rebounds. Kostas Sloukas and Nikola Kalinic scored 18 points apiece, and Jan Vesely collected 12 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals in the losing effort.

Hunter and Acy combined to score the first 10 points for the visitors, but Fenerbahce did the damage, too, with its big men Vesely and Williams, before Sloukas hit three-pointer that opened a 15-10 lead. Fenerbahce remained efficient inside, with baskets from Kalinic and Vesely, but Jackson hit from downtown for the visitors, as did Tyler Dorsey, for a 23-20 score after 10 minutes. Avdija put on a show early in the second quarter, sinking a pair of triples and detonating a monster dunk over Luigi Datome to put Maccabi ahead 27-30. Jackson's three-point play and jumper stretched the lead to 31-37, but Fenerbahce answered with a 7-0 run, which included a three-point play from Sloukas, as Maccabi went into the break up 40-41. the teams traded blows early in the third. Kalinic had a triple and a dunk, capping a 7-0 run to make it 52-46, before Bryant had a pair of baskets and Hunter a three-point play in a 0-9 Maccabi run that restored the visitors' lead, 52-55 midway through the quarter. Leads changed hands eight more times the rest of the quarter, mostly from the free throw line, as Maccabi held onto a 63-64 edge going into the fourth. The visitors opened that quarter with a 0-7 run capped by a triple from Avdija, to make it 63-71. Fenerbahce needed more than 4 minutes to score in the fourth quarter until Kalinic's three-pointer cut the difference to 68-73. The hosts' rally continued with Williams driving for a dunk and Westermann sinking a second-chance triple to restore their lead at 75-74. Dorsey downed a jumper, but Sloukas made 2 free throws with 4.0 seconds left to put Fenerbahce up 77-76. That's when Caloiaro inbounded a lob pass for Hunter, who fought inside to bank a layup and lift Maccabi to victory.

Leads and ties

How tight was this game? Neither team held a lead bigger than 8 points. There were 15 ties and 22 lead changes, including one tie and three lead changes in the final 65 seconds of the game.

Down to the wire

This is third time in the last four seasons that a game in Istanbul between these two teams is decided on the last shot. Last season, Kostas Sloukas hit a buzzer-beating triple to lift Fenerbahce to come-from-behind 78-75 win, and three seasons ago Maccabi won 79-81 on a last-second jumper from Sylven Landesberg.

Avdija's show

If 19-year-old Deni Avdija already had a coming-out EuroLeague party, he repeated it against Fenerbahce. Avdija scored 8 of his career-high 13 points in the second quarter, when he strung together a triple, a monster dunk over Luigi Datome, and another triple. He finished the night making 3 of 4 two-pointers and 3 of 6 shots from downtown. Avdija also had 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

Fourth-quarter draught

Fenerbahce had 7-0 advantage on offensive glass in the fourth quarter, including 6 in the opening 4 minutes of the quarter. However, Fenerbahce was scoreless during that span, missing a total of 11 field goal tries. The only basket an offensive rebound produced for Fenerbahce in the fourth quarter was a triple by Westermann with 1:05 left.

Next up

Teams will return to action in Round 25 after a one-week break. Fenerbahce will be at home welcoming Real Madrid on February 20, and a day later Maccabi will visit Valencia.

Deni Avdija - Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv - EB19
Friday, February 7, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: LOTTERMOSER, ROBERT; BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; PEREZ, EMILIO
Attendance: 10527
By Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul23172314
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv20212314
End of Quarter1234
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul23406377
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv20416478
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 NUNNALLY, JAMES 11:42 2 1/1 0/1   1 1 2           1 1 3
9 WESTERMANN, LEO 20:50 3   1/6   1 3 4 2 1 1     1 1 4
10 MAHMUTOGLU, MELIH DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 26:38 18 5/6 2/2 2/2   1 1 1 2 2     3 1 17
16 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 25:39 18 3/5 2/5 6/6 1   1 4         1 3 20
19 DE COLO, NANDO 20:27 2 0/2 0/2 2/2 2   2 2   3     3 4  
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 36:55 22 6/7 1/6 7/8 1 5 6 2   1       7 29
23 THOMAS, MALCOLM 12:55   0/2     1 2 3 2 1 1   1 2 1 1
24 VESELY, JAN 34:56 12 5/9   2/4 4 4 8 4 2       5 5 20
35 MUHAMMED, ALI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
44 DUVERIOGLU, AHMET DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
70 DATOME, LUIGI 9:58   0/4 0/2   1   1   1 1     1 1 -5
Team             2 2     1         1
Totals 200:00 77 20/36 6/24 19/22 12 18 30 17 7 10 0 1 17 24 90
        55.6% 25% 86.4%
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
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 BRYANT, ELIJAH 22:27 7 2/2 1/4     2 2 4   4     2   4
1 WILBEKIN, SCOTTIE 9:48   0/3 0/1           1 1     1 1 -4
2 ACY, QUINCY 17:31 11 4/4 1/1     3 3 1 1 1     1   14
3 REYNOLDS, JALEN 9:49 2 1/2       2 2 1   1 1   3 1 2
4 CALOIARO, ANGELO 31:28 8 2/2   4/4   2 2 4 1       1 3 17
5 HUNTER, OTHELLO 19:18 13 6/8   1/1 1 1 2 1 1 1     2 2 14
6 COHEN, SANDY 0:56                              
8 AVDIJA, DENI 20:43 13 2/3 3/6     3 3 2         5 1 10
9 JACKSON, AARON 25:02 12 3/3 1/3 3/3   2 2 2   1     2 4 15
11 DORSEY, TYLER 21:12 8 2/4 1/4 1/1 1 1 2 1 1 2     3 1 3
15 COHEN, JAKE 10:53 2 1/2     1   1     2     2 1 -1
32 STOUDEMIRE, AMAR'E 10:53 2 0/1   2/2 1 2 3 1         2 2 5
Team             3 3               3
Totals 200:00 78 23/34 7/19 11/11 4 21 25 17 5 13 1 0 24 16 82
        67.6% 36.8% 100%
Head coach: SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS

Head Coaches

OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"It is not easy. It was a very emotional game. But when you have the game in your hands, and you lose it, it is not easy. I don't really like to talk about the last possession. It happened in the last 4 seconds of the game, for us it is a lot more important how we played in the first 39 minutes and 56 seconds before we lost. The team fought a lot. The team had a big desire, but it was not enough. We have to play with better concentration and to understand something that has been a problem from the beginning of the season, how to react and how to use certain situations when you are in the lead. We knew how Maccabi plays; we tried to prepare ourselves. The players played with desire, but it was not enough. Congratulations to Maccabi. Thanks to my players for fighting for 40 minutes and thanks to our fans for their support."
SFAIROPOULOS, IOANNIS
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
"I think it was not only the last possession; we played really smart the entire game. We controlled the game with our defense, we moved the ball on offense. Second half put us under big pressure, but we came back after a timeout and we controlled the game. We had the lead at the end of the third, and then we went into a thriller. We had smart play at the end to win the game. We had smart plays from Tyler [Dorsey], who made an important two-point shot. We fought a lot. The only thing that we could do better is defensive rebounding. We could have done a little better job rebounding after missed shots from Fener, not let them shoot for second and third times. We had many injuries during the game. Jackson is not fully recovered, he went out of the game and came back. Wilbekin is not ready but he played. Acy had problems with his foot, but all the players gave maximum for the team, and that is the most important."

Players

JACKSON, AARON
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
"It was something. Both teams made big plays near the end of the game. We were fortunate to get a timeout. We actually just put that play in, I wanna say, a week ago and it came at the right time. Coach called it up and drew it perfect. A good inbound pass, and [Othello] had a great finish there. I know how Scottie [Wilbekin] is feeling, he is on one bad leg. I sprained my ankle a week and a half ago. The same as the last EuroLeague game, I went it, got a shot. We just know how important these wins are. I know how important it is to be at the Final Four level. We want to get where we need to get, so I just went out there and gutted it out."
HUNTER, OTHELLO
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
"I just tried to be focused. I let Westermann shoot a triple in front of me, so I was kind of like, 'Man, that was a mistake.' And coach came up with a play couple weeks ago, and it was a perfect scenario and I just tried to execute. I am pleased. We can work more on our defensive rebounds. We let them get a lot of offensive rebounds. I am happy we won, but it is on to the next one."
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