It was forced at the end, but Efes Anadolou made a save

Even though it was difficult, Efes Anadolu defeated Villeurbanne 89-84 in “Sinan Erdem” for the third matchday of the Euroleague and took its first defeat in this year’s event, leaving the French champion at 0/3 and without a prospect for the continuation.

The two-time European champions went into double figures in the third and early fourth periods after a first-half derby, but De Colo single-handedly reduced the deficit to -6, but the home side’s shooting accuracy in the final minutes earned them the pink card.

Clyburn contributed more with 19, Larkin with 18, Beaubois, Thompson with 14 and Zizic with 11 points. For the French, De Colo stood out with 15, Scott with 15, Lovern with 13 and Lee with 11 points.

The match

With aggressive polyphony, Efes reached 10-2 at the start of the match and Zizic with personal actions made it 14-7. The Villeurbanne regionals went on an 8-0 run to bring +1 to the French champions and the lead began to change during this period with absolute accuracy from both sides and with the first quarter ending at 24-24.

A 9-0 run by Efes at the start of the second period made it 33-26 for the Clyburn-led Turks. Larkin made it 37-29 and the two-time European champion maintained +6 to +8, since only Fal was trying alone on the French side. A 4-0 run by Villeurbanne cut it to -4, but one by Efes ended the half at 43-35. The Turks had 11/14 two-pointers, 6/6 shots and 18 rebounds and the French only 7/9 shots.

With several runs, Efes reached +10 at the start of the third period. At 48-40, Thompson took his “gun” and with a personal 7-0 run brought it 55-40 and Larkin’s three-pointer made it 58-40. Thompson continued his “violin” and Chan’s team reached 63-42 with the “awakening” of his peripherals. De Colo took action and with his own personal 6-0 streak reached 6/6 two-pointers and reduced 65-51. He reduced it to 67-56, but Bobois’ three-pointer made it 70-56 at the end of the quarter.

Larkin was +15 and Beaubois +16 to start the fourth period and the difference was between +13 and +15 for Ephesus in that period. Clyburn made it 80-63 and he now kept it at +9 +10 to +12 for the Turks. Loverne reduced to 81-71 and De Colo to 83-74 at 1’18”. The French international guard reduced it to 83-77 at 22” and suddenly put “fire” in the match after the hosts relaxed in defense.

Larkin’s shots made it 85-77 at 21” and Lovern cut it to 85-79 at 17”. Thompson’s shots brought the score to 87-79 and Efes’ shooting accuracy kept +6 and +8 for the Turks and with all this the match ended at 89-84.

The quarters: 24-24, 43-35, 70-56, 89-84

The statistics