ISTANBUL
Anadolu Efes defeated ALBA Berlin 78-74 for their second victory Friday in Round 4 of the EuroLeague.
ALBA Berlin finished the first quarter 23-22 but Efes mounted a comeback in the second period and took a four-point lead into halftime, 41-37, at Sinan Erdem Sports Hall.
The third quarter ended 61-58 in favor of the German side. Efes then controlled the last stanza scoring 20 points in Istanbul.
Serbian guard Vasilije Micic scored 20 points and had 11 assists while American forward Will Clyburn had 16 points to go along with 11 rebounds for the winning side.
French guard Rodrigue Beaubois finished with 10 points.
Tamir Blatt and Yovel Zoosman each drooped 15 points in a losing effort
Also, Chadian center Christ Koumadje had 12 points and five rebounds in the road loss.
“First of all, I can say that we played terrible basketball. On our team, Will (Clyburn took 19 shots) and Vaso (Micic took 17 shots) and we can’t play basketball like this,” Efes head coach Ergin Ataman said after the game. “We need to share the ball on offense, we need to find bigs on the roll, but we can’t play basketball like this.”
The result means the Turkish club jumped to the eighth spot with two wins and two losses.
The German side dropped to fourth place with three victories in their first loss.
Friday’s results:
Panathinaikos Athens – AS Monaco: 80-83
Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz – Olympiacos Piraeus: 92-97
Real Madrid – Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade: 72-56
