Turkish duo suffers huge defeats, occupy last spots in Top 16 groups

TEL AVIV/VITORIA

Bojan Bogdanovic had 15 points against Maccabi, but his efforts were not enough to save Fenerbahçe Ülker from a bitter defeat in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague.

Two Turkish teams, Fenerbahçe Ülker and Beşiktaş, have slipped to the bottom of their Turkish Airlines Euroleague Top 16 group with heavy defeats on Jan. 10.

Fenerbahçe Ülker suffered a big 91-73 defeat at the hands of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv and Beşiktaş lost 77-51 at Caja Laboral on the third match day of the Top 16 stage of the top-level European club basketball competition.

The defeats left Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe Ülker in the bottom two spots of the Group F, which is led by Caja Laboral.

For Fenerbahçe Ülker, the decisive period was the fourth quarter, where the Istanbul team allowed 38 points, to produce 25.

“We allowed 38 points in the last quarter and that was maybe a Top 16 record,” Fenerbahçe Ülker coach Simone Pianigiani told Euroleague website. “If someone watched the box score, they would think there was no game tonight, but that’s not what happened. We need to stay together and play 40 full minutes. If we had done that tonight we had a chance to win.”

Ricky Hickman and Shawn James starred with respective career highs of 24 and 22 points for Maccabi, who got its first win in the stage. Bojan Bogdanovic, Romain Sato and Bo McCalebb scored 15 points apiece to lead Fenerbahçe and Batiste added 10 points and 9 rebounds.

“Nothing is over yet,” Pianigiani said. “We’re not in a good situation but nothing is over. With Montepaschi I arrived to the Final Four after starting a six-game Top 16 with two losses. There’s still time to turn things around.”

Unlike Fenerbahçe, it was from a start to finish rout for Beşiktaş.

The hosts stormed out of the gate, using 21 unanswered points to open up a 25-2 lead and cruised after that.

On the way to victory, Laboral tied a Top 16 defensive record as it allowed only seven points in the first 10 minutes of the game.

“They totally dominated us,” Beşiktaş coach Erman Kunter said. “We had no chance tonight.”