By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes is finally picking up momentum to cover up for the lost ground early in the season and beat AS Monaco 98-77 in Round 11 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague to win its third straight game and improve to a 5-6 record.
Efes led with as much as 20 points in the second period and held on to a 58-40 lead at halftime. Paris Lee orchestrated a Monaco comeback early in the third period, though the visiting side struggled to find balance on the offensive end with back-to-back turnovers and the Turkish side was once again on the driver seat with a 73-61 lead after 30 minutes.
Monaco continued the chase in the fourth period, reducing the deficit to six points, though a tenacious defensive effort by Efes paid off to keep them in charge with a double-digit lead again in the final minutes.
Rodrigue Beaubois once again shined for Efes with 17 points and 7 assists, as Shane Larkin added 14 points, 4 assists and 2 steals. Adding up to a great team effort, Tibor Pleiss posted 12 points, Adrien Moerman had 14 along with 7 rebounds and Filip Petrusev added 10 points.
“It’s been a great week for us. Because our audience was here. I am very happy because I found my team. We started playing our normal basketball. We started fighting for the ball. We started playing as a team. Today we could have scored more than 100 points, we could have scored 110 because we had a lot of free shots”, commented Ergin Ataman after the win.
Donatas Motiejunas led the efforts of the visitors with 21 points and 5 rebounds, Lee dropped 18 points (4/5 3FG) and 4 rebounds, and Dwayne Bacon added 12 points. Monaco ends this week winless and falls to a 5-6 record.
Photo: EuroLeague