Jordan Farmar leads as Maccabi Electra hold off Anadolu Efes 79-72: Euroleague Recap
Maccabi Electra headed all four quarters of the game and picked their third consecutive victory of the Turkish Euroleague regular season with a 79-72 win over Anadolu Efes on November 10 in Istanbul, Turkey.
“A very important road win. Congratulations to my players, who knew to step up in the most important times and never broke down, even though Efes never stopped fighting. We won every quarter, not by many points, but every quarter
was ours and that is very important,” Maccabi Electra Head Coach David Blatt said.
In doing so, Maccabi became the first team to win a Euroleague game in Sinan Erdem Arena - home of the 2012 Final Four this season. In addition to that, Electra are now heading Group C standings with 3-1 record. Efes, on the other
hand, lost their second straight home game and have dropped to 2-2.
Jordan Farmar posted a strong all-around game with a team-high 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and two steals in more than 35 minutes. Farmar went 4 for 7 from two-point range, 2 for 3 from three-point range and 4 for 4 from
free throw line. David Blu had 15 points, four rebounds while Sofoklis Schortsanitis and Lior Eliyahu tallied 12 points each for the visiting team.
For Anadolu Efes, Sasha Vujacic led the way with a game-high 21 points on 5 for 5 shooting from the free throw line and two steals. Stanko Barac had 17 points, on a 7 for 9 shooting from two-point range, three rebounds, two assists
and two steals in the loss.
Electra shot 60 percent (24 for 40) from two-point range and held the Turkish team to just 46.5 percent (20 for 43).
Efes dominated the first minutes of the game and held a 13-8 lead. However it all went downstream from there on in. The Turks missed some open shot and gave breathing space to Macabi, which obliged and finished the first quarter
with a 14-13 lead.
In the second quarter, Maccabi maintained their six point edge till deep into the period, 36-30. Akyol hit a three-pointer and Esteban Batista scored a lay-up that made it a one-point contest, 36-35, for Anadolu. However, Burstein
fed James for a dunk to make it 38-35 at halftime.
Efes were able to stay within striking distance in the third quarter and were trailing by only three (56-53) Smith struck from downtown for a 59-53 lead, heading into the last quarter.
Efes however hung in and tied the game at 70 early in the fourth. That shook up the Israelis and they reeled off a 9-2 spurt to seal the game.
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