By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Krnoslav Simon ‘exploded’ in the second half and led Anadolu Efes to a 76-60 home win against Real Madrid in Round 4 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. Efes improved to 3-1 while Real now holds a 2-2 record.
Simon scored only two points in the first half but dominated in the second on his way to 17 points. Bryant Dunston also added 17 points (on 8-10 shooting) while Chris Singleton helped with 13.
Simon and Dunston also grabbed nine and eight boards respectively while for Real, Sergio Llull scored 14 in addition to Gabriel Deck and Jordan Mickey’s ten points each.
Real kicked off the game with nine straight points but Efes managed to recuperate and turned the tables to lead 22-13 early in the second quarter. Efes couldn’t anything going from deep (2-15), unlike the Spaniards which banked six threes and thanks to Gabriel Deck’s buzzer layup grabbed a 31-29 halftime advantage.
It was all about defense
“All game we played great defense, and in the first half we had the chance to break the game but we missed a lot of shots, we only made 2 of 15 three-pointers in the first half. We wanted better shot selection in the second half and we did it, we found shots everywhere – from the outside, from pick and roll, with our bigs, and we won the game with a perfect score. I’d like to welcome Chris Singleton back to this level, he showed us he is a great player. Every game is important in EuroLeague, everybody can beat every team, this game is over and next week we have a double week starting on Tuesday against Red Star. That will be a very important and difficult game and I hope we will have this great atmosphere again then. We will continue, it’s very early in the season and we have 30 more games”, Efes coach Ergin Ataman said after the game.
As coach Ataman explained, Efes played great defense down low and kept doing it after the break while also finding their groove offensively. They scored eight straight points (37-31) to start the second half and although their whole lineup was contributing, Simon was the one leading the charge with 13 points in 12 minutes.
Real was struggling offensively turning the ball over 16 times in total as Efes ‘ran them over’ leading by as much as 19 points (74-55) and sealing the win.
Simon knew they just had to stay focused and keep going: “It was team play. We played a great second half. In the first half, we had some problems on offense but we knew if we played our game it would happen for us. It’s nice to play good but the most important thing is the win. We had a great defense, especially in the first half when we struggled on offense. We stayed alive on defense, they only scored 31 points in the first half which is a very small total for Real Madrid. When we started to play well on offense in the second half it was impossible for them to stop us.”
Photo Credit: Turkish Airlines EuroLeague