By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes and Unicaja Malaga started their Euroleague season with wins. Coach Dusan Ivkovic’s Efes was tested by ambitious Unics Kazan, while Malaga didn’t faced any problem on the road against Cedevita Zagreb.
At Istanbul, the hosts had to fight in the end in order to prevail with a 82-76 win. Efes got a 18 points lead (54-36) in the third quarter. Unics tried to mount a come back thanks to the duo of Langford (19 π.) and White (13 π., 10 ρ.) and in the last quarter we had a real game. The Russians made it a four points game (80-76) with 12 seconds to go. Turkish youngster Cedi Osman answered with 2/2 free throws (82-76), Dogus Balbay stole the ball from Curtis Jerrells and the game was over. However veterans Draper (16 p.) and Krstic (15 p.) were the best for the winners. This was also the night during which Dario Saric was presented with the FIBA Europe young player of 2014 award.
At Zagreb, Unicaja Malaga (photo) got the 78-63 win. After ten balanced minutes, the Spaniards got a 47-36 lead at half time with a partial 29-16 score in the second period and kept their distance until the end. Vazquez (13 p., 8 r.), Kuzminskas (12 p., 4 as.) and Toolson (20 p.) had a great game, while center Miro Bilan (15 p. 10 r.) was a real beacon on the court for the hosts. The best that Cedevita could do was cut the lead of Unicaja to nine points (70-61).