The Turkish giant got the better of Crvena Zvezda in a spectacular clash
Efes rolled on with another impressive road win
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Regular Season
Round 33 of 34
Group Regular Season
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A strong finish to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague regular season has propelled Anadolu Efes Istanbul into the postseason picture and with one round to go, the competition’s former champs have every chance of securing an automatic play-off berth.
Efes is on the verge of a top-six finish after a dramatic 96-97 overtime win at Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade, the Turkish side’s seventh in a row ahead of the final regular-season clash at home to already eliminated Zalgiris Kaunas.
The spectacular see-saw battle in the Serbian capital produced everything a basketball fan could ask for. Audacious off-balance three-pointers from Zvezda’s Isaiah Canaan were countered by monster dunks by Efes big man Vincent Poirier, who claimed the player of the game accolade as he came up big down the stretch.
Poirier, who racked up 14 points, 4 assists and 3 boards, was level-headed after an absorbing contest in which the lead kept changing hands time and again before Efes came out on top on the back of a 0-7 blitz in overtime.
“It was a great game, we stayed in it all the way and that’s always hard here with the fans getting behind their team,” Poirier said in his postgame comments. ”We knew it was going to be difficult so I am proud of the team and now there’s one more game to go until the end of the regular season.
“Defense was decisive tonight as we conceded 51 points in the first half but we improved in the second. We raked up a lot of rebounds and forced some turnovers and that was the key.”
Efes looks a different team under Italian head coach Luca Banchi, who heaped praise on both sides and lauded his team for staying strong in the face of adversity, having seen Zvezda wipe out a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit.
“Congratulations to both teams and it was amazing how Zvezda came back,” said Banchi. “They never gave up, while we approached the third quarter as a top team after trailing at halftime.”
“I am so proud of the team, especially how they reacted in overtime after the frustration of letting victory slip away from our grasp in regulation. Great focus, great energy coming from some key stops.”
Despite the loss, Zvezda was able to clinch a play-in berth, the club’s first postseason involvement since 2016. Having lost to Efes, Zvezda faced an anxious wait for the Italian derby result to go its way.
The outcome duly played into the Serbian team’s hands, as Virtus Segafredo Bologna drubbed EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 90-70 and condemned its perennial domestic rival to elimination from the business end of Europe’s premier club competition.
Zvezda’s head coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos was pleased with his injury-hit team’s effort, as the Serbian outfit missed several key players. The shorthanded roster came close to forcing a final twist and was given a rousing send-off by its fervent 16,000 home crowd.
Congratulations to the players,” Sfairopoulos said. “I am very proud how we performed as we played really hard despite having so many absentees.”