By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Paris Basketball managed to beat Anadolu Efes in Istanbul and that’s a headline by itself.
You need to add, however, that this was the seventh straight win of the French club which now has a solid 8-3 record, while Efes dropped to 6-5.
The final score was 93-84 as amazing TJ Shorts once more shined with 21 points and 10 assists.
“We just take it game by game, nobody thinks about the streak we are on, we just need to continue to play good basketball”, said Shorts after the final buzzer.
Collin Malcolm added 15 important points, Mikael Jantunen had 13, while Tyson Ward, and Kevarrius Hayes scored 11 points each. To be exact Ward had a double-double adding also 11 rebounds.
Efes, still missing Shane Larkin, got 15 points from Darius Thompson and Vincent Poirier and a double-double by Elijah Bryant (11 p. 10 as.) which was not enough.
Fighting fire with fire
Paris started the game with an impressive 15-4 run, but Efes tied it all at 20 and the French side was up by two (22-20) at the end of the first quarter.
That was the start of seven unanswered points for Paris (27-20) but once more, Efes came back to take a 35-34 lead with four minutes left in the second period.
Still, Paris behind 12 points by TJ Shorts closed the first half leading by four (43-39) and by 10 (51-41) to start the second after a three by Mikael Jantunen.
Efes closed the gap fast (51-47) with Elijah Bryant and Rodrique Beabois making two threes. Paris wasn’t rattled and pushed it back to double digits (58-47), closing the third period up by eight (66-58).
TJ Shorts pushed the lead to 12 (72-60) too early for Efes to give up. The hosts got twice within six points after a goal foul by Bryant (79-73) and after a goal foul by Vincent Poirier (82-76) with two minutes left.
Efes couldn’t get any closer, Shorts scored again (84-76) with less than one minute left and the game was over.
Photo credit: EuroLeague