Fener, Beşiktaş lose in Euroleague

MOSCOW/BELGRADE

EPA Photo

Fenerbahçe Ülker and Beşiktaş lost their Turkish Airlines Euroleague matches on a bad night for Turkish teams on Nov. 15.

Fenerbahçe Ülker was downed at the last second against BC Khimki, while Beşiktaş lost to Partizan.

K.C. River’s buzzer-beating shot lifted BC Khimki to a thrilling 71-70 victory over Fenerbahçe Ülker on Thursday evening in Russia. Rivers managed to grab the ball after Sergey Monya missed a three-pointer and threw it up a fraction of a second before the red light on the backboard lit up to signify the end of the game.

The thrilling victory put Khimki into second place in Group A with a 4-2 record, while Fenerbahçe dropped to 3-3.

“We fought until the last second, but unfortunately we lost,” Fenerbahçe coach Simone Pianigiani said.

Khimki started the second quarter with a 14-2 run to open up a double-digit lead, but the visitors erased it midway through the third quarter and the game was destined for a dramatic ending. Rivers finished as Khimki’s top scorer with 14 points, Vitaly Fridzon scored 12 and Zoran Planinic had 11 points. For Fenerbahce, which was without star point guard Bo McCalebb, David Andersen led visitors with 17 points plus 7 rebounds while Bojan Bogdanovic and Barış Ermiş each scored 11 in defeat.

In the other clash, Partizan registered its first win of the season by downing Beşiktaş 87-72 at Pionir Arena.

Partizan improved to 1-5 in Group D and recharged its chances of reaching the Top 16. Beşiktaş dropped to 3-3, but stayed third in Group D. Dragan Milosavljevic paced the winners with 16 points.

Vladimir Lucic and Dejan Musli each added 14 and Leo Westermann and Drew Gordon had 13 apiece for Partizan. Curtis Jerrells led the Black Eagles with 20 points, while Damir Markota added 16.