Fenerbahce Ulker downed Cibona 68-73

Fenerbahce Ulker held off a late Cibona Zagreb charge to record a valuable 68-73 road win at the Drazen Petrovic Basketball Center in the Croatian capital on Thursday evening. Tarence Kinsey scored 17 points and Croatian national team star Roko Ukic netted 14 for the winners, who improved to 2-0 in Turkish Airlines Euroleague Group C, but visit Euroleague champion Regal FC Barcelona next week. Cibona dropped to 0-2 and visits Montepaschi Siena in Week 3. The game was close throughout and the visitors held just a 2-point edge at halftimes. FB Ulker stretched it to 9 in the third quarter, however Cibona, led by Leon Radosevic and Rok Stipcevic, came within 1 in the closing minutes. Nevertheless, the Turkish champs held on as Kinsey, Omer Onan and Mirsad Tukcan made free throws in the final minute. Lynn Greer added 11 points and Turkcan had 9 rebounds for the winning side. Radosevic paced Cibona with 16 points, Bojan Bogdanovic added 15, Stipcevic and Drago Pasalic scored 12 each and Tomislav Zubcic 11.

Darjus Lavrinovic scored on a fast break dunk and a driving lay-up in the first 60 seconds of the game and Marko Tomas added a layup of his own for an early 2-6 lead. On the other end of the floor Pasalic scored all the points for the home side to tie the game at 7-7. Pasalic’s second three-pointer gave Cibona its first lead of the game, 10-9, after five minutes. Radosevic and Ukic traded buckets before another long jumper by Radosevic and 2 free throws by Bogdanovic gave feisty Cibona a 16-11 lead. Zubcic extended the lead to 19-13 with a driving lay up, but Fenerbahce Ulker silenced the crowd with the drives by Tomas and Kinsey who scored 6 points in the last two minutes of the first quarter and tied it at 19-19 after 10 minutes.

Five bench players opened the second quarter for Fenerbahce Ulker. Oguz Savas started the quarter with an easy lay up and after a three-pointer by Rok Stipcevic, Turkcan scored an easy lay up of his own. Radosevic answered with a monster dunk, but Greer with a long jumper and Kinsey with a triple gave the visitors a 24-29 lead as they scored on the team’s first five possessions. Cibona refused to give up and kept the Turkish champs scoreless for the next three minutes, while using buckets by Bogdanovic, Radosevic and Stipcevic to take a 30-29 lead. Fenerbahce Ulker used an unsportsmanlike foul by Pasalic to stop its scoring drought, and then an Ukic triple and two buckets by Kinsey gave them a 32-38 edge with three minutes to go in the first half. Cibona responded through Bogdanovic, who scored 6 points in an 8-2 run that tied the game at 40-40, but Ukic had a final say in the half with a fine pull-up jumper to give Fenerbahce Ulker 40-42 lead at the break.

Like in the first half, Lavrinovic opened up the scoring in the second as well. Gasper Vidmar added a tough layup in traffic to give the visitors 40-46 lead, only for Bogdanovic to answer with his first triple of the game. Those were the only buckets in the first four minutes of the second half as the players from both teams dove to the floor after every loose ball. A Bogdanovic layup pulled Cibona within 1, but Onan hit a long jumper to keep his side in front and Ukic scored a three-pointer to give Fenerbahce Ulker 45-51 lead. Radosevic came back with a baseline jumper, but 2 free throws and a triple by Greer gave the visitors their their biggest lead of the night, 47-56. Radosevic and Zubcic scored in the last minute of the quarter to bring Cibona to 51-58 at the end of the quarter.

The two teams went scoreless for first two minutes of the fourth quarter before Pasalic scored from the low post, and Greer answered with a layup. Stipcevic once again cut the deficit to 5 before Tomas scored a three in front of his old crowd to give the visitors another 8-point lead. With turnovers coming on both sides of the floor, Stipcevic scored from downtown and after a timeout dished out an assist to Zubcic who hit a three from the corner to cut the lead to 61-63. Visitors got some breathing space with driving lay up by Ukic, however Radosevic cut the lead to 2 points again. Jumpers by Onan and Kinsey gave Fenerbahce Ulker a 64-69 advantage, but an alley-oop dunk by Radosevic and a driving lay up by Stipcevic with only 55 seconds to go brought Cibona within 68-69. With the crowd on its feet, Kinsey made 2 free throws with 35.7 seconds on the clock, while on the other end a fast break finished in a Zubcic turnover. In the last 30 seconds Onan and Turkcan scored 1 free throw each, while Stipcevic missed a three-pointer that could of given Cibona another chance.