By Stefan Acevski/ info@eurohoops.net
In the 33rd week of the EuroLeague, Fenerbahce was defeated by Maccabi Tel Aviv in Belgrade (94-89), starting the double-match week with a loss.
Fenerbahce seemed unstoppable at one point in the season, but they have suffered three losses in their last four EuroLeague games. After defeats to Crvena Zvezda and Olympiakos, Maccabi also bested the Turkish team, putting the European champion’s top spot on the table at risk—they now have only one more win than Olympiakos.
After the match, Sarunas Jasikevicius spoke at the press conference, expressing dissatisfaction with his team’s first-half performance.
“Good evening everyone, first of all, I congratulate Maccabi and their coach Oded Kattash. They definitely deserved to win today. Our first-half performance was unacceptable; we conceded 57 points. We were always 1-2 steps slower than Maccabi. They got more rebounds under our basket than we did. Therefore, our physicality and defensive approach were poor, as has been the case recently. The second half was not bad for us; I enjoyed the second half. We played more patiently, physically, and attacked the rim. Our defensive physicality was better. However, in the EuroLeague, if you only play well for one half, you lose. At the end of the day, this was the logical result. Today, Maccabi was better than us.”
In the next round, Fener will play against Zalgiris in Istanbul in three days.
Read the full article here
