By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Anadolu Efes entered the last period leading by one point, but in the end, Partizan dominated the last quarter and emerged victorious.
The final score was 97-84 with the last period having a partial score of 34-20 for the guests who were trailing 64-63 at the end of the third quarter. However, they now have a 16-13 record, while Efes dropped to 14-15.
It was a team effort for the Serbs with Kevin Punter scoring 19 points, Mathias Lessort adding 17, Zach LeDay and James Nunnally scoring 16 points each and Aleksa Avramovic adding 14.
“We were able to overcome adversity and get the dub, plus 10, so that feels good, on the road, too”, Punter said after the game.
As he explained talking about Partizan: “We’ve got a lot of character. It starts from the top, starts with our coach, and goes down to the players. We just wanted to keep fighting. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming in, so we just wanted to keep fighting and keep chipping away at it, and that’s what we did. [The key to the fourth quarter was] staying poised, going with what you know, relaxing, calming down, and taking it a possession at a time.”
Anadolu Efes got 22 points from Will Clyburn and 16 from Elijah Bryant. Vasilije Micic scored 15 and Shane Larkin had nine.
Efes even led by three (70-67) with eight minutes left in the game, but a 20-2 run (87-72) followed by Partizan decided the game. The hosts started the game leading by 17 (23-6), however, at halftime, Efes led just by two (39-37).
It was a very crucial game with Partizan being totally efficient from the free throws line making 28/28, while Efes had 13/15.
“Somehow we woke up and started to play”
Partizan coach Zeljko Obradovic explained that his team demonstrated their respect towards Efes: “Coming over here to play against a team that in the last years was European champion, of course, you need to come with big respect. And knowing that you need to play almost a perfect game if you want to win”.
As for the game itself, Obradovic added: “We started the game, let’s say, very lazy. They scored everything very easily. It was 23-6. And after that somehow we woke up and started to play. I believed we played, after this, a very good game, and I’m really very proud of my players because this victory is very important for us. Again, against a team that is the European champion that I’m sure will continue to fight to be in the best eight. And this team, if they go to the best eight, I don’t think that any team will want to go against them in the playoffs. So congratulations to Efes for everything they’ve been doing these last years, Coach Ataman, his players, and all the members of the club. And finally, one more time, congratulations to my players on the great game they played tonight”.
On the other hand, Efes coach Ergin Ataman didn’t hide his disappointment: “After the good start of the game, we started to make ridiculous turnovers from our hands, from the first ball, from the first pass. And after that, we started to give them easy baskets. They found 16 points after the turnovers that we made from our hands. And then, in the last quarter, we lost the balance. Again, we continued to make turnovers. And defensively, Partizan really played great. They found very difficult shots on the last second [of the possessions]. We missed the shots that they made in the last quarter, and with this difference, they won the game, so congratulations to them.”