By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes gaining distance in the second half beat Real Madrid, 108-83, to become the latest team sealing its ticket to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague playoffs.
Sertac Sanli scored a team-high 17 points in Tuesday’s win, seventh in the last eight games across all competitions for the Turkish powerhouse. Shane Larkin made all of his 16 points after the break, while Krunoslav Simon fit 13 of his 15 points in the first period.
“We are now in the playoffs and now we need to fight to reach one of the top four positions,” noted Simon, “We will try to win the next two games and see in which place we will finish. The most important is we are now in the playoffs, but now, let’s fight for something more.”
“This is a very difficult league, there is a lot of talented teams, but as you can see over the last few years if we score and we get into our pace and our tempo, we are a very tough team to beat,” added Larkin, “In the second half, we really got to what we wanted to do and it’s another good win.”
Four more players ended up in double-digits at Madrid’s WiZink Center. Vasilije Micic paired his 13 points with a game-high six assists, Rodrigue Beaubois produced 12 points and Chris Singleton had 11 in the Regular Season Round 32 balanced offensive effort.
“It is not easy to win this kind of a game here,” pointed out Ergin Ataman, “It is an excellent win for us. It is important to play good basketball and tonight in the second half, we once again played excellent basketball.”
The Whites boss, Pablo Laso saw Walter Tavares exiting with ten points to his name after a leg injury and himself ejected in a disastrous second half. The hosts were outscored, 67-41, following a slim advantage, 42-41, as the players returned to their respective locker room. Trey Thompkins finishing with a game-high 19 points was not merely enough.
With Sergio Llull still sidelined alongside Anthony Randolph, Rudy Fernandez returned to action with 13 points in just under 16 minutes.
Ataman’s team up to 21-11 completes the last double-game week of the EuroLeague season at TD Systems Baskonia Thursday. One day later, on Friday, Madrid down 18-14 will attempt to hold on to its reduced playoffs chances with a home win over Olympiacos.