Sasha Vujacic makes a mark as Anadolu Efes overpower Partizan MT: S 67-58: Euroleague Recap
Despite losing few games in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague 2011, Anadolu Efes have looked impressive.
Two out of their three losses were close encounters and could have easily ended in their favour, had they managed to hold nerves in the ending moments. Anyway, after getting a hammering from Spanish giants Real Madrid last week,
they came back strongly and collected their 3rd win of the league by downing Serbian Champions Partizan MT: S 67-58. In doing so, they have improved their record to 3-3 and are still in with a shot to qualify for the round of 16.
On the night, it was rock solid defence which was complimented well by a well paced offense that led Efes to a crucial win. They held the opponents scoreless for most of the third quarter and in the mean time kept on accumulating
points to gain a healthy lead, which Partizan never managed to eliminate.
Efes’s coach, Ufuk Sarica was satisfied with his team’s performance;
"We had a crucial win against Partizan mt: s tonight. It seems like we struggled, but actually we dominated most of the game. We led the score most of the game and defended very well. We kept one of the best centres in Europe with
just 4 points and that was the key to the game. We played excellent defence and did what we planned before the game.
Sasha Vujacic led the way Efes with 21 points. He was assisted well by Dusko Savanovic, who scored 16 and pulled down 4 rebounds. Stanco Barac also made a valuable contribution of 10 points.
Milan Macvan paced Partizan with 15 points and 5 rebounds while Acie Law and Danilo Andjusic both scored 10 each. No other player from the team managed to put up a decent show.
Efes started the game with an 8-4 spurt, however both the big guns from Partizan, Macvan and Nicola Pekovic, fired back in the next few minutes to take Partizan to a 17-15 lead by the end of first quarter. Partizan maintained the
lead for the first five minutes of the second quarter but courtesy of Stanko Barac and Cenk Akyol, Efes ended the first half of the game ahead of opponents, 30-28.
The first few minutes of the third quarter were quiet as neither team managed to find the basket. Sasha then ended the drought with a free throw and later in a partnership with Cenk and Esteban Batista; he managed to lift his team
to a commanding position at 39-28.
Dusko then chipped in with two free throws to end the quarter 47-36 in the favour of Efes.
Partizan tried hard in the last quarter but the 11 point lead that has built in the third frame never allowed them to get past.
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