By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
With a tremendous performance in the first half (49-30), Anadolu Efes dominated Unicaja Malaga 87-67 and retained its hopes to qualify to the playoffs.
For the winners, Thomas Heurtel scored 17 points and dished 13 assists, with Dario Saric adding 17 points and 13 rebounds. On the other hand, DeMarcus Nelson had 12 points for the losing squad, which has already been eliminated.
Anadolu Efes made a tremendous start to the game and quickly took a nine-point advantage (11-2). The hosts continued to play very well on both ends of the floor and ended the first quarter in front by 16 (27-11).
Later, Malaga tried to make a come-back and went on a 7-17 run to cut the deficit to just six (34-28). However, the Turks responded and brought their lead back to double digits, after 20 minutes in the game (49-30), behind a 15-2 run of their own.
In the second half, things didn’t change much, as Efes was easily retaining their advantage (62-42, 72-52). However, the Spaniards went on a 4-15 run and were down by nine, with three minutes to go (76-67). The hosts, though, stood tall (81-67) and secured the victory, which keep the team alive in the play-offs race.