2019-20Regular SeasonRound 17
January 02, 2020 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul bounced back into winning ways with a commanding 87-96 victory at Olympiacos Piraeus, overshadowing Vassilis Spanoulis’s achievement in moving past Juan Carlos Navarro as the competition’s all-time scoring leader. The visitors surged ahead to a double-digit lead by halftime through outstanding three-point shooting, were up by 19 early in the third quarter and a masterclass from Nando De Colo proved enough to repel the home team’s attempted comeback. De Colo paced the winners with 32 points on 5-of-8 three-point shooting, while Kostas Sloukas provided plenty of support with 14 points, 9 assists and 4 steals. Luigi Datome (15 points) and Derrick Williams (13) also impressed for the visiting team, which came within one three-pointer of a club record after making 16 of 29 long-range shots. Spanoulis paced Olympiacos with 14 points and 8 assists to move clear of Navarro’s all-time mark, while Georgios Printezis also scored 14. Nikola Milutinov (11), Kostas Papanikolaou (11), Brandon Paul (11), Willie Reed (10) and Will Cherry (10) also reached double digits in defeat. The teams are now tied with 6-11 records at the midway point of the season.

Free throws gave Olympiacos an early lead before Cherry and De Colo exchanged three-pointers. Nikola Kalinic scored twice, but a mid-range jumper and a driving layup from Spanoulis kept the hosts ahead. Printezis made a three-point play, however inside strikes from Sloukas, Datome and Melih Mahmutoglu kept it close. After Papanikolaou and Sloukas traded triples, Sloukas connected with a heave from his own half for a 20-22 lead at the end of the first quarter. Mahmutoglu’s triple completed a 0-9 run before Taylor Rochestie reignited Olympiacos. Williams scored twice, including a big alley-oop slam, and Mahmutoglu made another long-range shot for a 26-35 lead. A trio of dunks by Reed brought Olympiacos back, but a pair of De Colo triples made it a double-digit game, 36-46. The French guard struck twice more before the break, giving his team a 40-52 interval lead.

Fenerbahce scored 9 of the second half’s first 11 points, with De Colo and Datome both netting from deep, but Olympiacos rallied by feeding the ball inside as Printezis, Papanikolaou, Milutinov and Cherry all scored in a 13-2 run. The hosts pulled it back to 61-65 as Cherry and Paul both scored from steals, but De Colo converted a put-back and a triple before Datome beat the third-quarter buzzer for a 61-74 lead. After Spanoulis struck an off-balance triple at the start of the fourth, Leo Westermann answered with his own deep strike before Williams and Datome penetrated and Westermann netted another triple to make it 66-84. Paul’s triple gave Olympiacos hope, but Williams scored twice to maintain a safe margin. Spanoulis broke Navarro’s record with a trademark triple and then drove to score for 82-90 with 90 seconds remaining. De Colo’s layup sealed the outcome.


Spanoulis strikes late to break record

This game will be forever remembered for Vassilis Spanoulis breaking Juan Carlos Navarro’s all-time EuroLeague scoring record. It didn’t always look like happening, though: Spanoulis netted 4 points inside the first 5 minutes, but did not score again until the first play of the final quarter. A two-pointer then saw him draw level with Navarro, before he broke the record with a trademark triple over Derrick Williams.

Sloukas shines

On the night his former teammate was supposed to take the limelight, Kostas Sloukas helped Fenerbahce steal Spanoulis’s thunder with an excellent all-round display. He was particularly influential in the first quarter, scoring 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting and adding 2 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal.

Three-pointers spark Fenerbahce

Fenerbahce was trailing 17-12 towards the end of the first quarter but then surged ahead thanks to a flurry of three-pointers. Sloukas (twice) and Melih Matmuhoglu were on target in a 0-9 run exclusively consisting of triples, before Luigi Datome, Mahmutoglu, Derrick Williams and Nando De Colo added further deep strikes to give the visitors 10-of-14 three-point shooting in the first half. The long-range scoring slowed after the break, but 5-of-8 from De Colo allowed the visitors to finish with 16 triples, one short of the club record.

Next round

Fenerbahce begins the second half of the regular season with a road trip to face KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz on Thursday, January 9, before Olympiacos travels to face Valencia Basket the following night.

Nando De Colo - Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul - EB19
Thursday, January 2, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: PEREZ, MIGUEL ANGEL; LATISEVS, OLEGS; VYKLICKY, ROBERT
Attendance: 10234
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus20202126
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul22302222
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus20406187
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul22527496
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 ROCHESTIE, TAYLOR 11:04 2 1/2 0/1         3         3    
2 BALDWIN IV, WADE 6:05   0/1           2             1
3 PAUL, BRANDON 20:20 11 2/2 1/4 4/6       1 2 1     2 4 10
6 KONIARIS, ANTONIOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 29:22 14 4/7 2/6         8 1 3     1 2 14
10 CHERRY, WILL 26:49 10 2/3 2/3     4 4 3 1       5 1 12
11 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 22:45 11 2/3   7/8 6 1 7 1   2 1   1 4 19
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 1:02     0/1                       -1
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 24:58 14 5/8 1/2 1/1   6 6 2         2 3 19
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 32:14 11 1/1 2/3 3/5   4 4 2 1 4     4 3 10
21 RUBIT, AUGUSTINE 16:16 4 2/2     2 3 5 1   1     1 1 9
33 REED, WILLIE 9:05 10 3/3   4/4   1 1     2       2 11
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 87 22/32 8/20 19/24 9 20 29 23 5 13 1 0 19 20 106
        68.8% 40% 79.2%
Head coach: KEMZURA, KESTUTIS
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
9 WESTERMANN, LEO 14:03 6   2/3   1 1 2 3   1     2   7
10 MAHMUTOGLU, MELIH 19:19 8 1/5 2/2   1 2 3 1 1 1     1   7
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 23:14 6 0/2 1/1 3/3 1 2 3 2   1     3 3 8
13 BIBEROVIC, TARIK DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
16 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 33:24 14 2/4 2/5 4/4 3 1 4 9 4 3     1 4 26
18 ARNA, EGEHAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
19 DE COLO, NANDO 26:21 32 6/9 5/8 5/6 1 1 2 3 2 2   1 4 6 31
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 33:14 13 5/8 1/2   1 4 5 1         1 2 16
23 THOMAS, MALCOLM 20:40 2 0/2 0/1 2/2 2   2 1 2 1     4 1  
32 CANDAN, BERKAY DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
35 MUHAMMED, ALI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
70 DATOME, LUIGI 29:45 15 3/4 3/7   1 3 4   2 1     4 2 13
Team             2 2               2
Totals 200:00 96 17/34 16/29 14/15 11 16 27 20 11 10 0 1 20 18 110
        50% 55.2% 93.3%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO

Head Coaches

KEMZURA, KESTUTIS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"To start with the positive, congratulations to Vassilis Spanoulis for his record. It’s an amazing achievement and something special. Also congratulations to our opponents. They came more ready and played better and deserved to win. Their second quarter was the key moment when we dropped defensively. We were too soft defensively, we let them shoot and it was no surprise when they made the shots when we let them shoot open. We didn’t do enough to stop them. It’s not tactics. You just have to fight through screens and communicate, just defend your man. I have to take some responsibility, I didn’t do a good enough job preparing the players, demanding what we have to do. But on the other hand, they killed us from second-chance baskets; they scored six threes from second-chance points and it’s hard for me to take responsibility for this. I cannot box out. We’ve had these problems before and we have to work even harder on this. Our problems start when we start to sub people. We know our limitations, but it’s hurting us and it’s hard to explain our lack of concentration."
OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"Happy New Year to everyone. It was the last game of the first half of the season, and like every game until the end, it was very important for us. With the problems we have, but the spirit we have, I believe we played a very good game and I’m really happy with how we played. We were very smart and caused Olympiacos to have 13 turnovers as well as keeping balance on rebounding. Congratulations to my players and I hope it will be psychologically important for the future. It’s very important that our fans continue to trust us and we also have incredible support from our management. This gives us new motivation to fight until the end. I want to congratulate Vassilis Spanoulis for becoming the top scorer in EuroLeague. Everyone understands how hard he works, and without any question, he deserves to be in this position. It was the same with Diamantidis, it’s not a new story. Everyone knows how hard they work and they are two of the best ever players in Europe."

Players

SPANOULIS, VASSILIS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"It's finished, OK, but I wanted this to happen winning the game, so it's a bad taste at the end of the day. For sure, I want to thank to all my coaches and teammates, the presidents and everybody who trusted me all these years. Thank you very much to all of them."
DE COLO, NANDO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"It was really important. We’ve had a tough beginning of the season, but we are trying to stay focussed and keep our team spirit. Tonight it was really important to win here."
SLOUKAS, KOSTAS
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"I think we controlled the game, playing against a good team on [its] home court. We scored crucial baskets and maintained control when they tried to come back. It’s amazing what [Spanoulis] has achieved. I was with him for seven years and I know how hard he works and how tough his mentality is. I’m proud of him and he deserves to stay at the top of EuroLeague."