By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes made short work of ALBA Berlin on the road to grab a 93-72 victory in Round 3, their long-awaited first one of the new Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season.
Multiple scorers stepped up for Ergin Ataman’s team to help the game reach double-digit leads before halftime (with a lead of 53-35 at 20′). Tibor Pleiss posted a team-high performance of 23 points on 8-10 FG along with 6 rebounds and one assist.
Vasilije Micic touched double-digit figures with 13 points and a career-high 13 assists, while Bryant Dunston also posted 13 points. Krunoslav Simon and Chris Singleton completed the list of top scorers with 10 points each.
“I’m very happy for today’s victory and I believe we will keep playing like this. We didn’t start the season well, our physical shape wasn’t at the highest level because we had some Corona cases, but the season is very long and we will keep our shape and when Shane [Larkin] comes back with additional quality, we will look even better. What we have now we will use in the best way”, said Micic after the win.
Here’s a look at his new career-high:
ALBA attempted its comeback late in the third period and managed to trim the deficit to 15 points, paced behind Marcus Eriksson’s effort (13 points). However, that comeback wouldn’t last long as Pleis would push Efes‘ lead to 20 points with three minutes remaining in the game.
Niels Giffey followed Eriksson’s lead with 12 points, four rebounds for ALBA.
Efes will now face perfect Zalgiris Kaunas on the road on Thursday, while the German team will travel to Moscow with hopes to bounce back from its 0-3 record against CSKA.