EuroLeague preseason: Fenerbahce wins thriller, Barcelona me…

Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul managed a big victory in the buildup to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season as it fought off UNICS Kazan 81-79 at the Istanball Cup in Istanbul. Fenerbahce prevailed in the battle of EuroLeague teams thanks to Nando De Colo coming up with 23 points as well as two big assists to Pierria Henry in the final 18 seconds – the second coming just before the final buzzer. Devin Booker added 15 points and both Henry and Danilo Barthel scored 8 points. Fenerbahce was behind much of the game, trailing 22-25 after 10 minutes, 39-41 at halftime and 59-62 after three quarters. Lorenzo Brown paced UNICS with 21 points while John Brown, Marco Spissu and Andrey Vorontsevich all scored 11 points in the loss.

In Sunday’s Istanball Cup final, Fenerbahce will face Partizan NIS Belgrade, which outlasted EuroLeague side AS Monaco 120-114 in a triple-overtime thriller. Monaco came back from 15 points down at halftime but could not win it in regulation despite Brock Motum’s three-pointer to make it 83-84 with 16 seconds left. Partizan ended up needing 55 minutes to finally decide the game. Rob Gray scored 19 points, Danilo Andjusic had 17 and Donta Hall chipped in 15 points in the loss.

In Spain, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid set up a date in the SuperCup final with wins on Saturday. Barcelona had no problems with Valencia Basket, leading 27-16 after 10 minutes and never looking back in an 87-68 win. Brandon Davies had 15 points and Cory Higgins scored 13 for Barcelona. Real struggled but managed to prevail 70-72 over host side Lenovo Tenerife. Real was behind until early in the fourth quarter when a three-point play from Guerschon Yabusele made it 54-55 to shift the the momentum for good Yabusele collected 15 points and 8 rebounds in the win with Fabien Causeur scoring 13 and Nigel Williams-Goss hitting for 12 points.

Just like Fenerbahce, Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade also beat a fellow EuroLeague club with a 55-83 win over Panathinaikos OPAP Athens in the MagentaSport Cup in Munich. Zvezda was down most of the first half, but things fell apart in the second half for Panathinaikos, which lost the third quarter 8-32. Nikola Kalinic paced Zvezda with 13 points and Nikola Ivanovic scored 12 in the win. Kendrick Perry and Vassilis Kavvadas were the Greeks’ top scorers with eight points. The game was overshadowed by an injury to Zvezda’s Aaron White late in the third quarter as the American landed awkwardly after a dunk and broke his left forearm. White will need surgery and is expected to miss six weeks.

In the other MagentaSport Cup game, host side FC Bayern Munich pulled away from Virtus Segafredo Bologna in the second half for a 90-66 win. Bayern was up 44-37 at halftime but took over after the break. Darrun Hilliard led the way with 15 points and Vladimir Lucic collected 14 points, 5 assists and 5 steals.

The Neofytos Chandriotis Tournament featured three EuroLeague teams and Olympiacos Piraeus and CSKA Moscow both registered comfortable wins in Nicosia. Olympiacos defeated Zenit St Petersburg 88-65 thanks to a solid defense in the third quarter, allowing just 12 points. Sasha Vezenkov paced the Greek side with 19 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists while Hassan Martin scored 13 points. Zenit got 18 points from Shabazz Napier and Alex Poythress had 13 points in the loss. CSKA rolled past Lavrio 107-68 with Andrey Lopatin and Nikola Milutinov both scoring 15 points and Iffe Lundberg chipping in 14.

Three EuroLeague teams were in the French capital as well for the Paris European Games. ALBA Berlin took the third quarter 5-25 including a 0-16 run en route to a 62-71 win over LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne. Marcus Eriksson scored 20 points and Maodo Lo had 19 points for the winners. Raymar Morgan was ASVEL’s top scorer with 18 points and Chris Jones picked up 12 points and 5 assists. In the other game in Paris, AX Armani Exchange Milan raced past Paris Basketball 64-95. Troy Daniels paced Milan with 19 points and Shavon Shields added 15 points.