By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olimpia Milano had a chance to turn the game around and keep their playoff hopes alive but Anadolu Efes was red-hot from deep and grabbed a 100-95 home win in the last Round of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. Efes finished the regular season with 20-10 while Milano stayed at a 14-16 record.
Vasilije Micic led the winning side with 18 points and eight assists followed by Rodrigue Beaubois, Krunoslav Simon and Tibor Pleiss’ 14 points.
For Milano, Mike James scored 17 points while Nemanja Nedovic added 16 in addition to Vladimir Micov and Mindaugas Kuzminskas’ 14 points each.
Efes had a 24-20 lead after ten minutes but their turnovers kept piling up and Milano’s defense paved the way for some easy points. James and Nedovic scored nine points each and gave the Italians a 53-42 advantage at halftime.
“At the end, it was a high-scoring game, but we missed open three-point shots in the crucial moments and missed many open shots that Efes scored. If you see the percentages, three-point shots killed the game. Also, in some crucial moments, we were not able to make one steal, one recover, one rebound… small things that gave Efes the win. We tried and played an excellent first half”, coach Simone Pianigiani.
However, the hosts kicked off the second half with four three-pointers and led by Micic, Beaubois and Simon – who banked 25 out of Efes’ 32 points in the third quarter – went ahead 74-69 in front of the final period. Milano stayed close but the Turks managed to hold on and secure the win, mostly thanks to Shane Larkin’s two shots from deep in crunch time.
“In the locker room, we talked about this not being a summer league game. This is not streetball. In the first half, we played like in a summer league friendly game, but we need to respect the EuroLeague and play aggressive. We can fight and lose, I accept that, but I told my players I couldn’t accept this attitude, staying on the court in the first half and not putting in hustle, not playing defense. In the second half, we improved our defense and aggressiveness and we found our tempo. We played our regular basketball, nothing special. One more victory at home. We knew that for Milano it was a big game and they put great hustle, but we played fantastic basketball in the second half”, coach Ergin Ataman explained.