By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
It was a must-needed victory at home for Anadolu Efes against last-seeded ALBA Berlin.
And with a roller-coaster game, they managed to survive, bringing home the 85-84 win to keep hoping about making it to the Play-ins.
Elijah Bryant recorded a scoring career-high 24 points with 5 rebounds and 4 assists, shooting 7/8 from two-point range and 2/3 from the arc. He also shot 4/5 at the line.
Will Clyburn had five consecutive points in crunch time, ending with 13 points.
However, it was Tyrique Jones who decided the game with a crucial and decisive block on Martin Hermannsson at the last second. Darius Thompson added 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Louis Olinde and Matt Thomas led ALBA Berlin in scoring with 17 points each, while Khalifa Koumadje powered up the German team at the rim with a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
“Jones’ block saved us”
“We got the win in a crucial time, everybody stepped up. That’s the most important”, Elijah Bryant said in the post-game flash interview.
“Tyrique Jones’ block at the end saved us, congrats to the team on the win”, Will Clyburn added. “Obviously you’d want to play better, but stuff like that happens”, he also said when asked about his poor performance tonight before coming up clutch late.
Tomislav Mijatovic also commented in the post-game flash interview. “Congratulations to our fans, they pushed us. The players gave an amazing effort and a great defensive performance at the end. It wasn’t gonna be easy”, he commented.
The Croatian head coach also addressed Shane Larkin’s situation. “Don’t forget Shane [Larkin] has been battling flu for the past two days, he has been through treatment from our medical staff, and I thank them for that. And I thank him for having tried to help the team”, he said.
Israel Gonzalez stopped by after the defeat. “We have to continue like this, we’re improving. Today it has been a matter of unluckiness, we played really well against such a good team like Efes”, he commented.
PHOTO CREDIT: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague