Fener rolls past Zvezda to home-court advantage

With an impressive long-range shooting display, defending champion Fenerbahce Dogus Istanbul assured itself home-court advantage in the playoffs by running away from host Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade for a 63-80 victory on Thursday. Fenerbahce's 11th win in the last 13 games gave it a 20-8 record to retain hold of second place, while already-eliminated Zvezda dropped to 11-17. Ali Muhammed pumped in 7 of Fenerbahce's 14 three-pointers – 13 of which came in the first three quarters – on his way to a season-high 25 points, one short of tying his career high. Nikola Kalinic followed with 10, while Jan Vesely and Marko Guduric scored 9 each. Altogether, six Fenerbahce players combined for 14 of 24 three-point shooting, or 58.3%. Dejan Davidovac had the best scoring game of his rookie season with 18 points for Zvezda, for whom Dylan Ennis was the only other double-digit scorer, with 10.

Single free throws by Mathias Lessort of Zvezda and Kalinic opened the scoring before Vesely broke away for a slam and Branko Lazic downed a reverse layup for the home team. Muhammed's first triple and his fastbreak layup preceded a one-hand alley-oop dunk for Vesely, giving Fenerbahce a sudden 3-10 advantage. Davidovac responded with a three-point play before he and Muhammed traded triples at 9-13. Guduric got his first points from deep, Vesely added a free throw and Muhammed drilled another triple to make it 9-20. Ennis finally broke a Zvezda scoring drought with 8 consecutive points to trim the difference to 17-22 after 10 minutes. A second-chance three-pointer from Nicolo Melli fell before Vesely hit 2 more baskets for another double-digit lead, 19-29. Back-to-back shots in close from Rochestie were met with Brad Wanamaker burying a triple at 23-32. Ognjen Dobric dunked and Alen Omic scored in close to get Zvezda within 27-34. James Feldeine and Wanamaker exchanged layups before Ennis turned a steal into a fastbreak finish that left a 31-40 scoreboard at the break.

Muhammed's fourth triple started the second half and then he toed the line for a long two-pointer. He and Guduric connected on 2 more triples as the lead soared to 32-51. Then it was Muhammed hitting twice more from deep, giving him seven, and Kalinic adding his own as the visitors exploded to a 36-62 advantage. Guduric returned to the arc for the next Fenerbahce triple as the third quarter ended 41-65 for the visitors. Dobric got a corner triple for Zvezda and Stefan Jankovic a shorter jumper for a change of pace to start the fourth quarter at 46-65. Davidovac converted a steal and slam into a three-point play before Dobric broke away for another rim-rocker at 51-67 to complete a 15-5 run for Zvezda. Luigi Datome settled down Fenerbahce but Davidovac and Rochestie kept dropping the difference to 58-71 with under 3 minutes left. That's when Kostas Sloukas answered from deep, although Davidovac matched him. Ahmet Duverioglu's dunk ended the threat as Fenerbahce wrapped up a road win that was worth one of the champs' biggest goals to date, home-court advantage in the playoffs.