Fenerbahce Ulker beat SLUC Nancy 73-53: Euroleague Recap
On Wednesday night, playing at the Palais Des Sports Jean Weille, Fenerbahce Ulker put up an all round effort to thump SLUC Nancy 73-53.
With the win, Ulker took a step closer towards securing the spot in Top 16 from Group A aka the group of death. The Turkish club only needs one more win in the remaining two outings to guarantee their smooth transition into the
next round. For Nancy though, the situation has now become desperate and they need to win both the remaining games to stand any chance of making it to the next round.
Ulker built the game around two scoring sprees – an 11-2 spurt early in the first quarter and then a 10-0 foray bridging the second and the third quarter. They did not lose the remaining two quarters either and the closest the
French came in matching Ulker in a frame was in the second quarter when both teams scored 10 points.
Nancy were hurt badly by their off colour performance from the field. They took 43 shots from the two point range but managed to convert only 13. The three point shooting was even worse at 4 of 18. On the contrary, The Turks converted
nearly 51 percent of their two point efforts and also knocked down 5 of 14 from the long range.
Ulker were also dominant on the boards, thrashing Nancy 45-33.
Ulker were led by James Gist, who accumalated16 points on 5 of 8 shooting from the floor and also grabbed 7 rebounds. Bojan Bogdanovic and Curtis Jerrells has 14 apiece for Fenerbahce, which also got a combined of 9 board from
the duo.
Jamal Shuler paced Nancy with 17 points for Nancy while Akin Akingbala nearly missed a double-double with 11points and 9 rebounds.
Nancy started the scoring with a Akingbala free throw, but Fenerbahce picked up pace after that and carved out a 13-22 lead seconds before the first buzzer. Pape Philippe Amagou slipped in two free throws for Nancy on the returning
possession as the teams headed into the second quarter with Ulker holding on to a 15-22 lead. The next 10 minutes witnessed a stale display of shooting from both teams and the first half ended on 32-25, advantage Ulker.
Shuler drilled a three to make it a four point game early in the fourth and after four straight points from Ulker; Akin made a layup and then followed with a dunk to again restore the 4 point deficit.
Nancy continued to press and a Kenny Gregory layup with two minutes to go in the first half made it 40-41.
Fenerbahce however were not willing to let go that easily.
They reeled off a 10-0 spurt at the point and from there on it was a breeze.
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