The best comes last: Bayern Basketball will host the reigning champion and league leaders in their final EuroLeague home game of the 2025/2026 campaign, with the showdown against Fenerbahce Istanbul tipping off at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday evening in a sold-out SAP Garden. In the arena at the Olympiapark, Munich have a positive record (11-7), and they want to fight for their 15th win of the season against the big favorite and defending champion to cap things off. Fittingly for a schedule that has been less than favorable this season, Bayern will finish the regular season with three straight road games.
Pesic and Mike: “We are highly motivated”
“Fener is Fener—they’ve had high continuity from the start of the year until now and they’re playing excellent basketball,” said Bayern head coach Svetislav Pesic ahead of this “big challenge that we will prepare for professionally.” He added: “Like all teams, they’ve recently lost a few players to injury, but they’re one of the best teams in Europe. We are very motivated and want to show our best performance.”
Fenerbahce, which celebrated the title for the second time last May, is once again the team to beat in Europe’s top competition this year. At 23:11, head coach Saras Jasikevicius’s team sits atop the standings, despite last week’s 82:92 home defeat to a Zalgiris Kaunas side that played outstanding basketball on the night.
Team leader: Wade Baldwin
Fener are led by athletic NBA addition Talen Horton-Tucker (16.2 ppg) and former FCBB guard Wade Baldwin, who is averaging 14.4 points per game along with 5.6 assists. There’s plenty of physicality and athleticism on the wing as well with athletes like Bonzie Colson (8.4 ppg) and the (recently banged-up) Tarik Biberovic (10.4). The return of veteran Nando De Colo has proven to be a huge boost; the 38-year-old Frenchman (10.9) has been impressing since his move from Villeurbanne, alongside Devon Hall (9.2), with consistency and 48.4 percent from three.
Veteran Nicolò Melli is out at the moment; as for long-term absentee Scottie Wilbekin—who always hit top form against Bayern (14 points in the 88:73 first-leg win)—Istanbul have just parted ways with him.
Talen Horton-Tucker is Fenerbahce's leading scorer | © EuroLeague
Fener have been taking league losses too
“This is a real treat—to face a top team in our last EuroLeague home game of the season,” said FCBB forward Isiaha Mike ahead of the marquee matchup. “Even though we missed the playoffs this time, we’re very motivated to get another win in front of our fans. Of course, Fener is a huge hurdle and we’re still finding ourselves again after a few losses. But we believe in ourselves, and we’ll fight to defend our home court.”
Like Bayern, Fenerbahce sit atop their domestic league with an identical record (20:4), but after several defeats in a row they are now level on points with Besiktas. Over the weekend they lost 83:89 at Bursaspor after overtime. The Turkish champions will once again be backed by more than 2,000 fans in Munich.