Six players scored 9 points or more for the hosts, who ended a run of five straight losses and compounded the visitors to their fourth defeat in a row
Paris gets back on track with team-oriented win over Efes, 88-84
Paris Basketball secured its first victory in more than a month on Tuesday night, having beaten Anadolu Efes Istanbul 85-81 on the back of a solid team display at Adidas Arena in Round 21.
Five players got into double figures in scoring – TJ Shorts (17 points), Nadir Hifi (14), Collin Malcolm (12), Yakuba Ouattara (10), and Mickael Jantunen (10) – as Paris moved to a 12-8 record and remained in the top six of the standings. This triumph ended Paris’s five-game losing streak.
Efes, meanwhile, had Elijah Bryant net a game-high 21 points, Vincent Poirier record a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double, Shane Larkin net 13 points, and Darius Thompson add 12 points, but it was not enough. Luca Banchi is now 0-2 as Efes head coach, with the team 10-11 overall and in the midst of a four-game losing skid.
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The hosts got off to a great start after racing out to a 7-0 lead thanks to mid-range jumpers by Tyson Ward and Shorts sandwiching a Malcolm three. Bryant got Efes off the mark just over 3 minutes into the contest with a fast-break dunk, but despite Poirier pulling the visitors within 8-6 after four straight points from the line, Paris reeled off another 7-0 run to go 15-6 ahead. Thanks to Rodrigue Beaubois’s three inside the last 25 seconds, the Paris lead was cut to 19-13 after 10 minutes.
Shorts had 4 points in the first quarter, but he had a three and a reverse layup inside the opening 80 seconds of the second period to give Paris a comfortable advantage at 24-15. Much was discussed about the Shorts versus Larkin matchup beforehand, and the latter came up with five points, then Poirier split free throws to make it a five-point difference at 26-21. It looked like Paris was going to maintain a healthy lead when Hifi’s three made it 31-23, but Poirier and Bryant stood up in particular. After a Lo three, which he faked and sent Poirier into the Paris bench, set a 37-30 score, the Efes center responded by scoring five points in a row before turning provider for Rolands Smits, who converted a layup to tie the game at 37-37. Bryant’s mid-range jumper over Shorts gave Efes its first lead on the night, 37-39, and that was the difference at the break.
Bryant hit a pair of free throws to start the second half, 37-41, but Ward and Malcolm combined to restore Paris’s lead, 42-41. Back-to-back threes by Thompson saw the lead change hands again at 42-47. Rather than Shorts, it was the likes of Lo and Ouattara who provided a boost to Paris, which wrestled its way back into the contest. Hifi’s three with 4:18 remaining tied it at 49-49, then Ouattara’s three allowed the hosts to go 52-49 ahead. There was little to separate the two in the final minutes of the third frame, with Dan Oturu scoring a layup to ensure it was 59-59 entering the fourth period.
The battle continued in the fourth, with Jordan Nwora blocking Shorts and scoring a three as Efes went 63-65 ahead, but Paris scored six points in a hurry to go 69-65 ahead. Following a Nwora tip-in, the momentum really started to swing Paris’s way after Jantunen hit his first three in eight games, having missed 24 straight attempts, to give his team a 72-67 edge. Bryant, in particular, refused to give up the fight and was instrumental in Efes coming back to tie it at 76-76 having scored 7 points and dished 1 assist in a 4-9 run. The game could have gone either way in the final minutes, but when Jantunen stepped up with another three to make it 85-78 with 43 seconds left, it seemed it was Paris’s night. Free throws took center stage the rest of the way, but Shorts and Kevarrius Hayes went a combined 3 for 4 to ensure Paris got the monkey off its back and returned to winning ways with an 88-84 triumph.