Turkish giant Fenerbahçe returned to winning ways beating THY EuroLeague powerhouse AX Armani Exchange Milan 92-100 at Mediolanum Forum on Wednesday.
With 11 wins in the last 12 matches, Fenerbahçe improved its records to 16-11. Milan, on the other hand, dropped to 17-10.
The Yellow Canaries’ Nando De Colo led the winners with 20 points, Lorenzo Brown added 18 while DyShawn Pierre and Marko Guduric hit 15 apiece. Jan Vesely, in the meantime, flirted with a triple-double as he posted 13 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high eight assists for Fenerbahçe, reported the EuroLeague’s official website.
Kevin Punter led Milan with 20 points, Luigi Datome added 16, Shavon Shields 15 and Sergio Rodriguez 13.
However, it all came down to the final three minutes, in which Guduric, Vesely and an unstoppable De Colo made the difference down the stretch.
De Colo got Fenerbahçe going with a 3-pointer and a jumper, getting help from Pierre for a 4-8 lead. Ahmet Düverioğlu followed a tip-in with a layup and Vesely dunked, but Michael Roll and Vladimir Micov each struck from downtown and Punter added a 3-point play for a 15-14 Milan lead.
Pierre, De Colo and Düverioğlu kept pacing, the guests but Shields hit a jumper and Kaleb Tarczewski added a couple of 3-point plays to boost the hosts' lead to 28-24 after 10 minutes. Kyle O'Quinn struck from beyond the arc and Guduric added a driving basket for a 28-29 Fenerbahçe lead.
Rodriguez rescued the hosts with back-to-back triples and Datome added another one to give his team fresh air at 39-33.
Vesely stepped up with a layup and a couple of slams, getting help from Pierre and Danilo Barthel to restore a 41-43 Fenerbahçe lead.
De Colo took over with a layup-plus-foul and Barthel followed a dunk with a jumper, but Datome, Punter and Jeff Brooks – off an inbounds steal at the halftime buzzer – hit each a triple for a 52-50 Milan lead at the break.
Micov and Guduric joined the 3-point shootout soon after the break. Kyle Hines and Shields soon restored a 60-53 Milan lead. Guduric struck twice from beyond the arc, De Colo added back-to-back jumpers and Pierre also struck from downtown in a 0-13 run that gave Fenerbahçe a 60-66 edge.
Datome sank a corner triple and a catch-and-shoot jumper, but Brown singlehandedly made it a double-digit game, 65-75.
Brooks and Rodriguez brought the hosts a bit closer, 69-78, after 30 minutes. Punter hit a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter and soon added a jumper and a dunk off a steal to bring his team within 77-80.
Shields then made it 81-82. De Colo buried a triple and fed Vesely for a 3-point play to give Fenerbahçe fresh air at 81-88.
After Rodriguez struck from downtown, Pierre and Shields exchanged baskets. Vesely restored an 86-92 Fenerbahçe lead with less than three minutes left.
Shields dunked off a steal, but Guduric sank free throws and De Colo struck from beyond the arc to seal the outcome, 88-97, in the next-to-last minute.
Earlier on Tuesday, the other Turkish team in the tournament, Anadolu Efes, climbed up to the fifth spot in the play-off table with a win over Valencia.