Fenerbahce Stay Perfect: See off Schio

Game Hero: Penny Taylor made some big shots and had a very active night to finish with a game high 24 points along with  six rebounds and three assists. Ivana Matovic also impressed with her shooting making 10 of 12 from the field but six turnovers spoiled her line a little.

Stats Don't Lie: There were 10 steals for the energetic Fenerbahce defence which was important. The usually reliable Laura Macchi had an off night making just 1 of 9 from the floor while incredibly, Schio only got to the line for two foul shots in the entire game.

Fenerbahce preserved their status as the only unbeaten team in EuroLeague Women after tipping off their Final Eight campaign with a 74-58 success against Beretta-Famila Schio.

It was a typically buoyant display by Fenerbahce who ran the floor to good effect and while they struggled to truly break away from Schio until the final quarter, they always held the upper hand and never looked in danger of allowing their superiority to slip.

Schio had managed to get their noses in front during the early exchanges courtesy of triples by Liron Cohen and Raffaella Masciadri which put them 11-10 in front but Fenerbahce responded by putting their foot on the gas.

Led by Taylor, they took control in the second quarter as the Australian went coast to caost to complete an ‘and-1' play to put her team 32-23 ahead.

However, Schio then cut the gap to five points which caused Fenerbahce coach George Dikeoulakos to call a time-out for his team and it worked as they came out to register six unanswered points.

That momentum continued with Matovic managing to find a tip-in on the buzzer to give her team a 42-30 advantage at the interval which they returned to extend to as many as 17.

A beautiful behind the back assist by Janel McCarville to Cheryl Ford under the basket helped Schio cut it to single digits at the end of the third quarter.

But, Fenerbahce kept their nerve during the last ten minutes to eventually ease away, even if the final score-line flattered them just a little.

Quotes Fenerbahce vs. Beretta-Famila

Fenerbahçe head coach George Dikeoulakos
"As we expected they played intelligent basketball. They tried to slow us down, make us confused and actually this worked at some parts of the game. Our answer was more or less the same; aggressive defense. The score says everything. I am satisfied for my team but I am not happy at all with the rebounds. We gave 22 offensive rebounds and I don't know how we managed to win with that number. But in spite of that we managed to win. I think our good defense was the key and from this good defense we found the energy to translate into offence."

Fenerbahce center Zane Tamane
"This was our first game and we knew it wouldn't be easy. We lost our cocentration at some point but found a way to come back and win and I am really happy."

Beretta-Famila Schio head coach Maurizio Lasi
"We made some mistakes. Our idea was to not let Fenerbahçe run. We played two times againt them and knew how strong they can be when they can run. We did it but not for 40 minutes. I also told my team that in Euroleague, especially in the final games play is a lot more physical and the referees call less. So we had to adapt to this kind of calling quickly. But at the end of the game we just shot two free throws while they went to the line 18 times. That is a big difference."

Schio guard/forward Raffaella Masciadri
"We knew that it was going to be a tough game and we were going to play against a strong team. We made a great effort at the beginning. We got a lot of confidence but then they played more as a team and found baskets. But i think we were beter defensively at the second half but they won the game.