By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Adrien Moerman hit the 1000-point mark in Turkish Airlines EuroLeague leading Anadolu Efes to an 82-68 home win over Darussafaka Tekfen in Round 19.
Moerman scored 15 points (6-6 twos) along with six rebounds, four steals and two assists for a total of 24 PIR while Vasilije Micic added 11 in addition to Rodrigue Beaubois’ ten points. For Darussafaka, Toney Douglas scored 17 and Jeremy Evans 14 points.
Moerman thanked his teammates after the game for helping him reach the milestone: “It is not just me; my teammates found me to score my points. I say thank you to them and it is not about the stats, but about the win. We are happy to win tonight.”
Both sides needed some time to ‘get things rolling’ as they missed a lot of open shots but Darussafaka also turned the ball over multiple times which Efes used to score some easy points and go ahead 21-12 after the first ten minutes. The guests’ offensive trouble continued in the second quarter as well. They couldn’t create open shots and Douglas, who shot 0-5 from deep in the first half, was forced to do it three times with the clock running down under heavy contest. Add to that nine turnovers and it didn’t come as a surprise that Efes hit the 20-point margin by halftime (45-25).
“We started the game very aggressive, following our strategy. We didn’t let them move the ball easily, took the rebound and improved the tempo every minute of the game. We were successful at improving the tempo, and tonight we used all 12 players in the rotation. Everybody was involved in defense and rebounds, and that gave us one more victory playing good basketball. We didn’t shoot well tonight, hitting only 29% of our three-point shots, which is lower than our season average, but we played perfect basketball.”, Efes head coach Ergin Ataman noted.
The squads picked up the pace in the second half and although Douglas and Evans found the groove combining for 22 points in the second half, they couldn’t give Darussafaka the needed comeback and Efes closed the game without a problem.
Efes improved to 13-6 keeping the fourth spot while Darussafaka stayed alone at the bottom with two wins (2-17).
Photo Credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague