By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Vasilije Micic scored eight out of his career-high 26 points in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter and dished out five assists to lead Anadolu Efes to an 85 – 70 win over Crvena Zvezda for the Turkish team’s fourth straight win in the EuroLeague regular season.
Crvena Zvezda had grabbed a 49 – 51 lead at the end of the third period after erasing a 16-point deficit, 47 – 31, in less than six minutes. Shane Larkin (13 points) and Micic pushed the team towards retaking an advantage, with the latter scoring a key triple for the 72 – 58 with 5:35 remaining. Efes held on to a more than safe lead for the remainder of the match.
“It was a tough game. We knew what kind of game we’d expect from them. They are a very physical team, they are playing very tough,” Micic to EuroLeague TV after his game-winning performance over his former team. “We responded well. Our second half was almost perfect.”
“It’s normal. They are a good team, they have potential. The good thing was that we stayed calm and we found a way to respond defensively,” the Serbian guard added on Red Star’s comeback.
Lorenzo Brown (18 points, five assists) was the only Red Star player in double figures Branko Lazic added nine points for the Serbian side that dropped to 1-4.
“We had a good reaction in the third quarter, but I think that if I see the statistics now, it was the first quarter in which we didn’t respect what we planned, in terms of the rhythm of the game and how we wanted to play our offense,” Crvena Zvezda interim head coach Andrija Gavrilovic said.
Ataman content with the win despite the number of turnovers
Efes coach Ergin Ataman pointed out the 20 turnovers his players committed in the game as the main reason he believes his team didn’t perform exactly well.
“Also the negative thing, is that we made 20 turnovers, which is incredible for us, too many,” Ataman said. “It is the first time at home that we have so many turnovers and we gave them easy baskets after turnovers. Especially in the first half, we only had 6 assists, which is lower than our assist average. We average 20 assists in the EuroLeague. Our second half was much better; we shared the ball and finally closed the game with 15 assists. Anyway, we didn’t play well so nobody will say after this game that Efes played good basketball tonight, but we won the game by 15. It showed that we have power, and have to be focused for Thursday night on the road against Panathinaikos.”
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball