By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
On the night Bryant Dunston made history, Anadolu Efes just couldn’t lose. The Turkish team got the 90-77 win over Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv which had a new coach and lost a big name player before the game.
Coach Giannis Sfairopoulos couldn’t change things overnight, especially with his players making just 13 out of 37 shots in the first half, while the club announced few hours before the game the amicable divorce with Ramon Sessions.
Meanwhile, Dunston surpassed Giannis Bourousis for the second place on the All-Time shot-blockers list of the competition with 194 blocks. The top still belongs to Spaniard Fran Vasquez with 249 career blocks. Dunston finished the game with 196 career blocks. He also scored 14 points, leading a balanced offensive effort for the winners. In total six Efes players scored in double-digits.
After trailing by seven at halftime (38-31), Maccabi made it a four-point game (42-38), but Efes’ answer was an 8-0 run (50-38). Maccabi couldn’t get back after that to striking distance. They cut the lead to six at the start of the last period (62-56), but simply they couldn’t keep up.
Johnny O’Bryant scored 19 points and Scottie Wilbekin had 10 points and seven assists for the losing side. The really good news for Anadolu Efes is that Shane Larking returned to action after his injury and stayed on the court for 11 minutes and scored nine points while dishing two assists and making two steals.
“We got contributions from all our players, and Shane Larkin came back really well after missing two weeks with injury“, said winning coach Ergin Ataman after the game. “It was a dangerous game for us, with Maccabi having a new coach. We have another game in two days, we need to prepare for Darussafaka.”