2019-20Regular SeasonRound 9
FC Barcelona 89
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 63
November 20, 2019 CET: 21:00
Local time: 21:00 PALAU BLAUGRANA

Barcelona thrashes Fenerbahce

In a battle of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague giants, FC Barcelona confirmed its good form by thrashing Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul 89-63 at Palau Blaugrana on Wednesday. Barcelona improved to 7-2 in the standings and remained undefeated at home while Fenerbahce dropped to 2-7. Cory Higgins led the winners with 22 points, Alex Abrines added 12, Kyle Kuric had 11 and Brandon Davies and Adam Hanga each got 10 while Nikola Mirotic pulled down 10 rebounds for Barcelona. Joffrey Lauvergne led Fenerbahce with 12 points. Higgins struck three times from downtown in the first quarter, getting help from Mirotic and Ante Tomic to get a double-digit lead, 25-15, after 10 minutes. Kuric and Hanga boosted Barcelona to a 44-30 cushion at halftime. Nothing changed after the break, as the hosts quickly raced to a 58-34 margin and kept a safe lead until the final buzzer.

Rolands Smits got Barcelona going with a wild dunk, which Kostas Sloukas bettered with a triple for a 2-3 Fenerbahce lead. Mirotic and Higgins stepped up for Barcelona, but Lauvergne made a jump hook and Ahmet Duverioglu scored twice in the paint to keep the visitors ahead, 8-9. Higgins struck from downtown and Higgins erased Lauvergne's put-back layup with a driving basket. Lauvergne scored again in the low post, but a red-hot Higgins buried a couple of three-pointers in an 8-0 run that gave the hosts a 21-13 margin. After Nikola Kalinic dunked, Tomic answered with a jump hook and a layup that made it a double-digit game, 25-15, after 10 minutes. Davies took over with a third-chance dunk early in the second quarter which Kuric followed with a tip-in and a huge alley-oop slam for a 31-20 Barcelona margin. Sloukas stepped up with a driving layup and Duverioglu scored again to give Fenerbahce hope at 32-24. Abrines sank a three-pointer and Hanga dunked to restore a 37-24 Barcelona lead. Hanga kept pacing the hosts with a three-pointer, as Lauvergne and Mahmutoglou answered for a 40-28 score. Higgins and Pierre Oriola boosted their team's margin to 44-30 at halftime. Abrines hit another triple right after the break, Ali Muhammed and Higgins traded jumpers and a big basket by Mirotic broke the game open, 51-32. Jan Vesely scored around the basket but he didn't find help around. A three-pointer by Hanga ignited a 7-0 run which Higgins capped with a dunk for a 58-34 Barcelona margin. The hosts kept finding easy shots, as Davies, Malcolm Delaney and Tomic sank respective jumpers to keep Barcelona way ahead, 67-40, after 30 minutes. Luigi Datome and Vladimir Stimac stepped up for Fenerbahce early in the fourth quarter Mahmutoglou struck from downtown, causing Barcelona to call timeout at 71-50. Barcelona did not panic, however, as a big dunk by Davies and back-to-back triples by Kuric and Abrines allowed the hosts to seal the outcome in style.

Pivotal performer

Cory Higgins had yet another outstanding performance. He needed less than 25 minutes to get 22 points on 3-of-4 two-point shooting, 4-of-8 on three-pointers and 4-of-4 on free throws plus 1 rebound, 3 assists and 2 fouls drawn for a PIR of 22.

Game-changing moment

A layup by Joffrey Lauvergne tied the game for the last time at 13-13. Higgins buried a couple of three-pointers and Ante Tomic added a jump hook and a layup to give Barcelona its first double-digit lead, 25-15. Fenerbahce never recovered and Barcelona kept full control for good.

Stellar stat

Barcelona outrebounded Fenerbahce 39-26, allowing the visitors just 5 offensive boards. Fenerbahce was limited to 23.8% three-point shooting (5 of 21) and missed too many free throws (2 of 10, 20%). The hosts hit 11 of 29 three-pointers (37.9%) and 10 of 11 free throws (90.9%).

Did you notice?

Ekrem Sancakli made his EuroLeague debut with Fenerbahce at Palau Blaugrana. Born on April 26, 2001, Sancakli hit his first shot 20 seconds after stepping on the court and added a triple in the final seconds to finish the game with 5 points.

Next game

Both teams return to Turkish Airlines EuroLeague action on Friday, November 22. Fenerbahce visits LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Barcelona hosts Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv.

Cory Higgins - FC Barcelona - EB19
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: CHRISTODOULOU, CHRISTOS; BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; LATISEVS, OLEGS
Attendance: 6287
By Quarter1234
FC Barcelona25192322
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul15151023
End of Quarter1234
FC Barcelona25446789
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul15304063
FC Barcelona
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 DAVIES, BRANDON 23:29 10 5/7 0/1   1 4 5 1 2 3 1   2 2 13
5 RIBAS, PAU DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 HANGA, ADAM 20:15 10 2/3 2/3     3 3 3 1 4     3 2 10
10 SMITS, ROLANDS 18:41 2 1/3 0/1   1 1 2           3   -2
18 ORIOLA, PIERRE 17:40 4 2/3     3 1 4 1         2 1 7
21 ABRINES, ALEX 18:55 12 0/1 4/6     1 1           3 1 8
22 HIGGINS, CORY 24:30 22 3/4 4/8 4/4   1 1 3       1   2 22
23 DELANEY, MALCOLM 17:31 2 1/2 0/2     3 3 9 1 2     2 4 12
24 KURIC, KYLE 20:08 11 3/6 1/5 2/2 1 6 7   2 1   1   1 12
31 BOLMARO, LEANDRO 2:14 2 1/1       1 1 2 1           6
33 MIROTIC, NIKOLA 23:37 7 2/5 0/3 3/3 3 7 10 2 2 2     1 2 14
44 TOMIC, ANTE 13:00 7 3/4   1/2 1   1 1         2 1 6
Team           1   1               1
Totals 200:00 89 23/39 11/29 10/11 11 28 39 22 9 12 1 2 18 16 109
        59% 37.9% 90.9%
Head coach: PESIC, SVETISLAV
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
8 SANCAKLI, EKREM 6:05 5 1/1 1/1     1 1     1         5
10 MAHMUTOGLU, MELIH 19:46 8 1/1 2/5     1 1           3   3
12 KALINIC, NIKOLA 16:41 2 1/2       3 3     3     4 1 -2
13 BIBEROVIC, TARIK 16:39 2 1/5 0/1   1 1 2 2   1 1       1
16 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 23:48 7 1/2 1/4 2/2 1 1 2 5 1 3     1 4 11
21 WILLIAMS, DERRICK 12:39   0/1 0/1 0/4           2     1 2 -7
24 VESELY, JAN 11:57 4 2/4   0/1   1 1 1   1     1 4 5
35 MUHAMMED, ALI 18:32 2 1/1 0/3   1 2 3 3   2     1   2
44 DUVERIOGLU, AHMET 14:39 8 4/6   0/1   2 2           3 2 6
70 DATOME, LUIGI 23:19 7 2/2 1/4         1 1   1     2 9
77 LAUVERGNE, JOFFREY 27:09 12 6/9 0/2 0/2 1 3 4 2 1 1   1 2 3 11
91 STIMAC, VLADIMIR 8:46 6 3/3     1 5 6     2         10
Team             1 1               1
Totals 200:00 63 23/37 5/21 2/10 5 21 26 14 3 16 2 1 16 18 55
        62.2% 23.8% 20%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO

Head Coaches

PESIC, SVETISLAV
FC Barcelona

"I think we played a perfect game for 30 minutes, with continuity in defense, and excellent transition defense which is always basic to control the rhythm of the game. The problem in the first half was our low-post defense with Lauvergne scoring 10 points. We spoke about this at halftime and in the second half, Lauvergne only scored 2 points. The final quarter was good too, but the first 30 were excellent. I’m not going to analyze the situation in Fenerbahce, but we played a perfect game. This is a very important win for our morale because you don’t play every day against a team with the quality and experience of Fenerbahce, and to win by 20 points is not easy. They know how to play basketball, but we played very well. It’s very difficult to play against us if we control the rhythm of the game.”

"We played a perfect game, this is true. The most important, I think, was that we didn't have ups and downs during the game. We had continuation, especially on defense, improving in the third quarter, which is sometimes for me a new game. We played excellent in the low post; they looked for the low post, but we denied it, eliminating any inside game. In general, it was a perfect game, especially on defense. If you play good defense and control the rebounds like we did tonight, we build confidence for our offense."

OBRADOVIC, ZELJKO
Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul
"First of all I want to congratulate Barcelona for their very good game. They dominated from the beginning until the end. They played very good offense and aggressive defense. I’m in my 28th season, I think, as a coach, and everything I try to do is to help my players. During the season you have difficult moments; you need to react and find a way to wake the players up and be better for the team. I don’t have a doubt about myself, I continue to do everything I have done until now. In the difficult moments, you understand everything about people. This is not the first time for me. This has happened to me many times. I know how people react and how people start to talk, but gossip and rumors are not part of my life. I’m at peace with myself. And so I give the ball to the players. At the moment it is a team totally without character. Totally. I don’t see that the players have any motivation. This is our main problem. If you finish the game with Barcelona making only 16 fouls, does this show that you tried to do something? If you don’t even try to play defense, the result will always be like tonight."

Players

HIGGINS, CORY
FC Barcelona
"It was a good win for us, a great bounce-back win after our poor performance last week. It is just the beginning of a huge week for us; we just have to keep this momentum going. It was good - again, it was a poor performance by me last week, so it was a good bounce back and more important, we played well and as a team. Like I said, it is a big week for us, so we are focused for the next game. We have a long way to go, but we are in a good way. Hopefully, we will build from here."
DELANEY, MALCOLM
FC Barcelona
"We didn't play a good game last week and today, we wanted to play more up-tempo and share the ball more. This is probably the best game we played all around, offensively and defensive. We are just trying to improve and get ready for a double week and for the rest of the season - to improve every game. We know that when we play well, we don't think anybody can beat us. Like I said, we are just trying to continue to get better. If we play like this every game, it is going to be difficult to beat us, especially at home: we have the fans behind us. We got stops on defense, shared the ball and when we play like that, we are a tough team to beat."