Fenerbahçe Dogus 86-82 Barça Lassa: Defeat at the defending champions

Two thirds of the way through the Euroleague regular season, Barça Lassa are now 7-13 after going down 86-82 to Fenerbahçe.

The Catalans battled hard from start to finish in Istanbul are were in contention right through to the final seconds, but the Turks (14-6) showed why they are the defending champions and held on in front of their vociferous supporters.

Wanamaker’s 13 points for the home side in the first period were the main reason why the men in yellow and navy blue led 22-18 after ten minutes.

Barça’s 9/17 in 3-pointers, with some top shooting from Hanga, Tomic and Koponen, as well as some fine defensive work, meant they had nudged their way into a slender lead by the interval (42-44).

But the visitors’ play dropped off in the third period, as Melli led Fener into a 9-point lead following a 13-6 streak. Claver’s three cleaned things up a bit, but the blaugrana would be playing catch up in the final quarter (65-57).

They got straight down to work. A 2-7 streak had them right back into the thick of it but more Melli magic swung things back the other way. Barça responded with two almost back-to-back threes from Heurtel and we were set for a gripping finale (82-79).

With eleven seconds to play, there were just two points in it, but four converted free throws from Wanamaker and Sloukas sealed it for Fenerbahçe.

Next up for Barça in the Euroleague is AX Armani Exchange Olimpia Milan (6-13) at the Palau Blaugrana on February 1.