By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
A game that was balanced during the first half, ended up being a win for Anadolu Efes over KIROLBET Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz. The hosts got the 96-85 win and Rodrigue Beaubois was fabulous against his former team.
The French guard scored 14 points and dished six assists. He set the tone in a team effort, as five more Anadolu Efes players scored in double digits.
Vasilje Micic with 16 points and five assists and Brock Motum also with 16 were the top scorers of the winners. Matt Janning with 20 points tried his best for Baskonia, but the guests were simply one step behind Anadolu Efes during the second half.
To be exact despite a 25-17 start by Efes, Baskonia made it a two-point game at halftime (44-42) and got a small 47-46 lead at the start of the third period.
However, Efes’ answer was an 11-3 run that made the score 57-50. Krunoslav Simon scored eight of those 11 points, but once again Baskonia reacted and got the lead back (60-59) with Johannes Voigtmann leading the charge.
“The key was in the aggressiveness they had“, admitted Baskonia’s coach Velimir Perasovic. “They forced 20 turnovers from us and they had 13 steals. That was the key in the game, especially when we were one point up and we lose the ball. That’s how they broke the game.”
Still, Anadolu Efes closed the third period leading by eight (75-67) with Beaubois making big plays and the hosts kept their distance until the end. With two minutes left Darun Hilliard who scored in total 15 points made it a five-point game (90-85) but Baskonia couldn’t get any closer.
Winning coach Ergin Ataman added: “In the first quarter we played perfectly. Then, our players got tired, but we didn’t have a good contribution in the second quarter from the bench players. Maybe we changed too many at the same time, with our starting five all out after 2 minutes of the second quarter. The second five didn’t get a rhythm, so we gave Baskonia a chance to get back in the game and we only led by 2 points at the end of the first half. In the third quarter, we started with our starting five. Especially after Dogus came back in – tonight he had a great game, with great hustle, leading the team like a real captain – we got the chance to break the game with some steals“.