2020-21Regular SeasonRound 21
CSKA Moscow 83
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 89
January 22, 2021 CET: 18:00
Local time: 20:00 MEGASPORT ARENA

De Colo, Vesely vault Fenerbahce past CSKA

On a special night for its superstar guard Nando De Colo, Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul registered its sixth consecutive win in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season by downing CSKA Moscow 83-89 in the Russian capital on Friday. Fenerbahce improved to 11-10 in the standings and is now tied on victories for the eighth and final playoffs spot with three other teams. CSKA is now 15-6 after losing its third game in four, putting the first place it has held or shared since late November in jeopardy. Jan Vesely led the winners with 24 points, while De Colo added 22 on near-perfect shooting. Jarrel Eddie scored 17 and DyShawn Piere 10 for Fenerbahce. Toko Shengelia led CSKA with 18 points. Janis Strelnieks, Nikola Milutinov and Daniel Hackett each added 12 while Mike James had 11 for the hosts. Four different CSKA players struck from downtown in the first quarter to give CSKA a 21-15 lead. Eddie and De Colo stepped up for Fenerbahce, then Marko Guduric and Pierre each hit a triple for a 38-38 tie at halftime. Daniel Hackett and Strelnieks helped CSKA get a 66-63 edge at the end of the third quarter. With the game tied at 78-78, Vesely and De Colo fueled a 2-9 run which sealed the outcome.

Milutinov got CSKA going with a jump-hook and a dunk but De Colo and Vesely each nailed a baseline jumper. De Colo then fed Vesely for a fastbreak slam that Shengelia, Nikita Kurbanov and James responded to with three-pointers for a 13-6 CSKA lead. Shengelia kept pacing the hosts with a three-point play that Eddie matched with a bomb from the arc. De Colo scored in penetration that Strelnieks bettered with a triple. Shengelia dunked but Vesely and Lorenzo Brown kept Fenerbahce within 21-15 after 10 minutes. After Strelnieks downed a jumper to open the second quarter, Johannes Voigtmann and James each hit a three-pointer for CSKA, then Shengelia took over with a dunk-and-foul. But De Colo and an unstoppable Eddie kept their team as close as 32-28. Vesely silenced the crowd with an alley-oop slam and Guduric downed a corner triple to make CSKA call timeout at 34-33. James sank a floater and Darrun Hilliard erased Vesely's alley-oop dunk with a jumper before Pierre beat the halftime buzzer from three-point distance for a 38-38 tie. After intermission, De Colo gave Fenerbahce its first lead, 38-40, with a driving layup. Hackett followed a jumper with a floater and Milutinov dunked but De Colo and Vesely kept the guests in charge, 44-46. De Colo and Eddie each struck from beyond the arc and Guduric added a reverse layup while Kurbanov, Hackett and Milutinov kept CSKA within 53-54. Pierre stepped up for the guests but Milutinov and James regained a 59-58 lead for CSKA. Strelnieks scored in penetration and hit a floater, getting help from Shengelia to keep the hosts ahead, 66-63, after 30 minutes. Brown hit a triple and a driving layup early in the fourth quarter for a 68-68 tie. Hilliard kept pacing CSKA, Strelnieks struck from downtown and Shengelia dunked in traffic to give CSKA fresh air at 75-70. However, Guduric sank a three-pointer and Pierre added a layup-plus-foul that put Fenerbahce ahead, 75-76, with over 3 minutes left. Eddie added a one-handed floater and Hackett turned the game into a thriller, 78-78. Vesely took over with a dunk, a pair of free throws and a tip-in for an 80-84 Fenerbahce lead with 56.3 seconds to go. He also had a block that allowed De Colo to seal the outcome with a big three-pointer.

Pivotal performer

De Colo had a season-best performance against his former team, finishing the game with 22 points on 6-of-6 two-point, 2-of-3 three-point and 4-of-4 free-throw shooting. He added 2 rebounds, 9 assists and matched his career high with 4 steals, amassing a PIR of 38, tying the second-best performance in his 208-game EuroLeague career.

Game-changing moment

Vesely did everything for Fenerbahce in crunch time. With the game tied at 78-78, Vesely dunked off an assist by De Colo, buried a couple of free throws, added a high-flying tip-in and went on to block Mike James's three-point shot, which allowed De Colo to strike from downtown at the other end, breaking the game open, 80-87.

Stellar stat

It's a testament to how dominant CSKA has been for two decades that Friday's defeat marked just the second time this century that it has lost two games in a row at home in Moscow. In the first such instance, visiting Real Madrid beat CSKA in late 2008 and Partizan Belgrade did the same in early 2009. Those losses were separated by a road win, however, making this CSKA's first back-to-back home losses with no games in between.

Did you know?

It was De Colo's first game against CSKA in Moscow since he left the team in 2019. In his five seasons with CSKA, he led the Russian powerhouse to as many Final Fours, winning two EuroLeague titles, in 2016 – when he was MVP of the season and Final Four MVP – and in 2019. De Colo received a big Russian doll of himself dressed in CSKA's jersey from CSKA president Andrei Vatutin in a pre-game ceremony.

Next games

Both teams return to action early in the next double-round week. Fenerbahce welcomes Maccabi Playtike Tel Aviv on Tuesday, January 26. A day later, CSKA visits ALBA Berlin.

Nando De Colo - Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul - EB20
Friday, January 22, 2021
Euroleague.net
Referees: GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; MAJKIC, MARIO ; THEPENIER, HUGUES
Attendance: 4277
By Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow21172817
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul15232526
End of Quarter1234
CSKA Moscow21386683
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul15386389
CSKA Moscow
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 BOLOMBOY, JOEL 11:48   0/1 0/1     2 2 1           2 3
4 KHOMENKO, ALEXANDER DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 JAMES, MIKE 29:50 11 2/7 2/8 1/3 2 2 4 3   1   1   1 4
6 HILLIARD, DARRUN 23:00 8 2/5 0/2 4/4   4 4 1 1   1 2 4 2 6
7 UKHOV, IVAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10 HACKETT, DANIEL 18:10 12 3/4 1/3 3/5           1     4 9 11
11 ANTONOV, SEMEN 4:15   0/1           1   1         -1
13 STRELNIEKS, JANIS 16:52 12 3/3 2/3         1         4   8
17 VOIGTMANN, JOHANNES 15:44 3   1/2     5 5 1   1     3   4
23 SHENGELIA, TORNIKE 24:42 18 6/7 1/3 3/6 1 1 2 4 1 6     1 5 17
33 MILUTINOV, NIKOLA 28:10 12 4/5   4/4 3 4 7 2         1 2 21
41 KURBANOV, NIKITA 27:29 7 2/2 1/2   1 1 2 3   2     2   7
Team           4 1 5               5
Totals 200:00 83 22/35 8/24 15/22 11 20 31 17 2 12 1 3 19 21 85
        62.9% 33.3% 68.2%
Head coach: ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
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 16:05 8 2/5 1/2 1/2   2 2     2   1 2 2 2
5 PEREZ, ALEX DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 GUDURIC, MARKO 27:44 8 1/4 2/4     3 3 2   3     3 3 5
10 MAHMUTOGLU, MELIH 11:26   0/1 0/2     1 1 1         1   -2
13 BIBEROVIC, TARIK DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
19 DE COLO, NANDO 30:34 22 6/6 2/3 4/4   2 2 9 4 1     4 7 38
21 PIERRE, DYSHAWN 23:32 10 2/2 1/1 3/3 1 1 2 3   1     3 3 14
24 VESELY, JAN 34:34 24 10/15   4/4 2 4 6 3 1   2   1 2 32
31 EDDIE, JARELL 29:28 17 3/4 3/5 2/3   2 2           4 1 12
35 MUHAMMED, ALI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
44 DUVERIOGLU, AHMET 8:17   0/1           1     1       1
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 18:20   0/2 0/1     3 3 3   1     3 1  
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 89 24/40 9/18 14/16 4 19 23 22 5 8 3 1 21 19 104
        60% 50% 87.5%
Head coach: KOKOSKOV, IGOR

Head Coaches

ITOUDIS, DIMITRIS
CSKA Moscow
"First of all, congratulations to Fener and to Coach Igor. They did a great job. It was a close game. We got our leads, they got their leads. We could have had a different momentum, especially when we had some looks, but that's the game. We had good shots. They made the shots and we didn't make them and they won the game, so congratulations to them. Regarding the game, I think we opened it very smart, with a lot of hustle, and in these two quarters that we hustled, we outscored them 49-40. But in the other two quarters, we were not there to hustle and they scored big points because of us not communicating, not switching and allowing them to shoot. And those moments, shooting 68% on free throws at home, you miss some open looks, cost you down the stretch."
KOKOSKOV, IGOR
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"It was a very, very difficult game to play in a tough place. At this moment, this is the best team in the EuroLeague, with many weapons, a lot of good players. We understood how difficult and how tough the game was going to be. We talked about it after losing Danilo Barthel, who is a big piece of our team, a big part of our rotation, and Ahmet Duverioglu, who couldn't play in the second half. The reason I am mentioning this is our lack of size was worrying me and it was a concern to match CSKA's size with their forwards and [Nikola] Milutinov. That was the biggest concern: energy and the lack of size. But aside from that, the effort was there. We showed high character. It is a big win for us and that's really a compliment to CSKA Moscow and Coach Itoudis, for the work they are doing all these years, and this year, too. We are going to enjoy this victory and credit goes to all of our players, the players who played the game and the players who were on the bench watching the game."

Players

KURBANOV, NIKITA
CSKA Moscow
"We had an optimistic start. We led by 10, felt the game, but then we fell back into a one-on-one game. The scenario turned out to be similar to the game we lost to Barcelona. We fully believed in victory but it did not work out. A lot of problems were created by De Colo and Vesely; we could not cope with them. The loss is unpleasant, but there is no time to give up."
DE COLO, NANDO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"It is a great feeling to be back in Moscow. I couldn't be here last year and it is great just to come back where I spent five years of my life. Like I said, it is a great feeling and the win tonight is great for us. They have a really good team and are strong in the offensive rebound, especially. And that is where we struggled a little bit in the first half, but we tried to control it at the end. We just stuck to the plan, played together, played strong and that's it."
VESELY, JAN
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"All game, we stuck with the plan. We played our game. Like Nando and Coach said, they beat us on offensive rebounds, but we took care of it in the second half and we played focused. That was the key. It's good to have fans in the arena. It was a great feeling. They gave us energy. I'm happy that also Fenerbahce fans could come to watch the game. And I hope we can play in all arenas full like this."