Real Madrid and Anadolu Efes win openers: Euroleague Basketball October 20 review – Part 2
Partizan MT :S 73 vs Anadolu Efes 84
In a thrilling game, Anadolu Efes stunned hosts Partizan MT :S 84-73, to claim their first victory in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague 2011-2012.
Tarence Kinsey led the winning team with 18 points and 3 rebounds and was assisted well by Dusko Savanovic with 17, Sasha Vujacic’s 14 and Ersan Ilyasova’s 10 points and 4 rebounds.
From Partizan, Nikola Pekovic was the most outstanding player ending with game high 21 points and 6 rebounds. He was heartbroken with the defeat and expressed his disappointment afterward;
“I am sad because we lost in front of our devoted fans. We lost to a better team, which played at high level all 40 minutes. We had problems with Anadolu Efes’s defense and that was the key of the game.”
Milan Macvan and Dragan Milosavljevic were the other two highlights from Partizan’s side ending with 14 and 10 points respectively.
The game was evenly poised at the end of first quarter with the hosts leading 28-27, courtesy of Pekovic, who was just unstoppable in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, with the help of consecutive three-pointers by Dragan, the hosts raced to a 40-33 lead but an impressive 9 point run by the visitors neutralized the advantage and by the end of the first half, Partizan were
trailing by 3.
Efes turned the game around in the third quarter. They completely choked the Partizan offense, reducing them to only 6 points and when the frame finished, the visitors increased their lead to 17 points.
Partizan tried to inch their way back in the final quarter, but the 17 point bridge was a bit too apart to cross.
Belgacom Spirou vs Real Madrid
A dominating performance by Real Madrid helped them cruise past Belgacom Spirou by100-76 in the first game for both teams on October 20.
Rudy Fernandez and Felipe Reyes led Real Madrid with 19 points each. Reyes also clutched 9 rebounds and was nearly perfect from the floor. Jaycee Carroll was also impressive and ended the game with 14 points.
Demond Mallet led Belgacom with mammoth 27 points and was scintillating from the floor; however, he only had support from one other player, Tornike Shengelia, who scored 11 points and 9 rebounds in the game.
The game commenced with a two pointer from Real Madrid’s Carlos Suarez and in the period that followed, Real asserted their dominance and ended the frame with a lead of 23-16. The Spaniards faced some stiff resistance from Spirou
in the next 10 minutes, but managed to maintain a hold on the game at the halftime, the scores being 45-37.
That Spirou resistance however completely subsided in the second half allowing Real to run riot towards a 24 point romp.
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