Caja Laboral edged out Fenerbahce 69-66 in Istanbul behind 23 points from Bosnian Mirza Teletovic as the first week of the Euroleague is one game away from completion.
The ACB outfit were up 71-68 with two-and-a-half minutes remaining when Fenerbahce’s Oguz Savas, found a wide open James Gist for the slam to trim the deficit to one point.
Pau Ribas restored Caja Laboral’s lead and Teletovic had the last laugh with a triple to seal the deal. Omer Onan had a chance to send the game to overtime, but his effort rimmed out at the buzzer.
Pablo Prigioni was influential throughout for the victors as he ended up with 5 points, 7 assists and 6 steals. Onan led Fenerbahce with 16.
“We played with great mentality, fighting for the win until the end, deserving to get the win tonight,” Prigioni said afterwards.
Fenerbahce’s Thabo Sefolosha believes that his side are not ready yet: “We saw today that we are not ready as a team. We were not very good in terms of defence,” he said.
Elsewhere in the Euroleague, Montepaschi Siena got off to a winning start, as they defeated Russian side Unics Kazan 79-71 in Russia.
Despite 30 points from Henry Domercant, it wasn’t to be enough as the Italian giants held on for the win. Montepaschi’s Bo McCalebb led with 17 points and four assists.
Jaka Lakovic nailed six treys on his way to 21 points as Galatasaray also won away from home, beating Asseco Prokom 76-72.
The Turkish side were up by double-digits headed to the final four minutes of the contest when Prokom staged a fightback, they even narrowed the gap to just two points at 74-72 with under a minute to play, but Galatasaray held on.
Italian side Bennet Cantu were the biggest winners of the night, as they beat SLUC Nancy 80-69 at home. A win that has to be credited to their fierce team defence.
Cantu were led by Andrea Cinciarini’s 15 points as they held Nancy to just eight third quarter points to claim the win. Akin Akingbala led the visitors with 20 points, while French international Nicholas Batum played all 40 minutes, recording a 13 point and eight assists statline.
