2006-07Regular SeasonRound 2
November 02, 2006 CET: 00:00
Local time: 00:00 PHILLIPSHAVE

Efes Pilsen ruined the home debut of RheinEnergie Cologne by rolling to a 68-82 road victory

Efes Pilsen ruined the home debut of RheinEnergie Cologne both in the Euroleague and in the nearby city of Dusseldorf by rolling to a 68-82 road victory in their Group A showdown on Thursday. Efes raised its group record to 2-0, while RheinEnergie sits opposite in the standings at 0-2. The trademark relentless defense of the visitors proved crucial as Efes rolled ahead by 23 points early in the third quarter. RheinEnergie rallied to come back all the way to within 7 with 5 minutes left, but ran out of luck atthat point. Marcus Haislip was the leading scorer for Efes with 16 points in just 16 minures. Only Cenk Aykol and Kerem Gonlum, with 12 points each, joined him in double digits. RheinEnergie had four such scorers, with Marcus Faison coming off the bench for 19 to lead the hosts. Ronald Burrell added 17, Immanuel McElroy 13 and Demond Mallet 10.

RheinEnergie opened with some quick scores around the basket by Ronald Burrell and Immanuel McElroy. Except for a Marcus Haislip baseline jumper, Efes had trouble hitting shots early on. After Gortat found McElroy with a nifty pass down low and Janar Talts hit a layup, the score read 8-2 for the hosts from RheinEnergie. But RheinEnergie’s turnovers proved costly, as Efes fought back with a Nicholas three-pointer and a dunk by Haislip. Akyol answered Mallet’s three-pointer in transition with a downtown strike of his own. RheinEnergie's Burrell returned the favor as he responded to a Haislip slam with two dunks of his own, making the score 16-15 for the home team despite 3 free throws made by Jenkins. With the end of the first quarter approaching, Efes coach Oktay Mahmuti turned to big man Nikola Prkacin down low, where he scored consecutive baskets on hook shots to give Efes a 16-19 edge after 10 minutes.

Efes got off to a great start into the second quarter. Ermis hit a triple and Aykol and long-range two-pointer force RheinEnergie's first timeout of the night. Gortat, Faison and McElroy came out of it and scored for the home team, but Prkacin twice found fellow big man Gonlum for easy lay-ins. Efes kept going inside, as Kuqo scored down low and Nicholas scored on a breakaway after some great defense, making the score 22-36 for the visitors. RheinEnergie fought back with a three-pointer from Faison and a Burrell jump shot. McElroy scored inside, and Nadjfeji celebrated his Euroleague debut with a three-pointer. But Efes turned now to another big man, Haislip, who answered the call with a pair of triples and a thunderous dunk. With time ticking away, Erden calmy swished a three pointer for Efes to beat the buzzer and give his team a 34-52 lead at intermission.

Efes seemed poised to land the knockout punch soon after the break, as Kuqo, Jenkins and Akyol scored quick points to make it 36-59. But that's when Faison ran wild to bring his team back, scoring 12 of RheinEnergie’s next 14 points, including a rare four-point play. After Guido Grundheid rejected a shot by Prkacin, Burrell hit a free throw that cut the RheinEnergie deficit to 10 points. Both teams missed for awhile as defenses dominated, until Prkacin hit a free throw for Efes and McElroy scored after hustling for the ball down low, making it 53-62 after 30 minutes.

In the fourth quarter, both teams traded baskets time and time again. RheinEnergie’s Mallet hit a three-pointer and a pull-up jumper, but Gonlum kept Efes safe with a tip-in, a dunk and 2 free throws. After a hook shot by Gortat and Faison's steal and layup, RheinEnergie was down only by 7 points with 5 minutes to play. But Efes would not let them get any closer. The visitors used tough defense and some timely hoops by Kuqo, Ermis and Nicholas to pull away 80-66. A nice alley-oop by Gonlum off a pass by Kuqo made for a final score of 68-82 as Efes stayed perfect in Group A.

Thursday, November 2, 2006
EuroLeague.net
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Referees: BRAZAUSKAS, ROMUALDAS; CASTANO, ANIBAL; AITCHESON, DALE
Attendance: 5000
By Quarter1234
RheinEnergie16181915
Efes Pilsen19331020
End of Quarter1234
RheinEnergie16345368
Efes Pilsen19526282
RheinEnergie
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
8 NADJFEJI, ALEKSANDAR 8:15 3 0/1 1/1         1             3
9 STRASSER, JOHANNES DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12 TALTS, JANAR 17:00 2 1/2 0/1   1 2 3     1 1 1 2    
13 GORTAT, MARCIN 22:45 4 2/5   0/2   3 3 2 2 3 1     1 5
17 SCHWETHELM, PHILIPP DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 PLEISS, TIBOR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20 MALLET, DEMOND 34:15 10 2/3 2/6     1 1 3   3     2 1 5
22 FAISON, MARCUS 27:30 19 3/6 3/5 4/4 1 2 3   2     1 4 7 21
23 McELROY, IMMANUEL 40:00 13 6/7   1/2 1 2 3 4 2 2     1 3 20
30 BURRELL, RONNIE 33:15 17 5/7   7/8   2 2 1   2 1     5 21
31 GRUNHEID, GUIDO 11:15     0/1     4 4     2 2   3 1 1
44 JONES, ALVIN 5:45   0/1               2     2 1 -4
Team             1 1               1
Totals 200:00 68 19/32 6/14 12/16 3 17 20 11 6 15 5 2 14 19 73
        59.4% 42.9% 75%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, SASA
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Efes Pilsen
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 NICHOLAS, DREW 31:15 9 3/4 1/5     1 1 4 2 1     2 1 9
6 ERMIS, BARIS 15:00 5 1/2 1/2   1 1 2 1       1 1 1 5
8 PRKACIN, NIKOLA 13:30 5 2/4   1/2 2 1 3 2   2   2 3 3 3
10 ABI, MUSTAFA 14:30 3 0/2 1/1           1     1 2   -1
11 ERDEN, CUNEYT 12:15 6   2/2     1 1 3 1 1     1   9
12 GONLUM, KEREM 24:00 12 5/8   2/2 5 4 9   2 3     1 2 18
13 HAISLIP, MARCUS 16:00 16 4/6 2/3 2/2   2 2 1 1   2   3 1 17
14 HERSEK, BARIS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
15 JENKINS, HORACE 12:45 6 0/3 1/1 3/3   1 1 1   1   1 1 3 5
16 PACUN, BORA HUN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 KUQO, ERMAL 26:30 8 4/8     1 4 5 3 2 2     2 1 11
41 AKYOL, CENK 34:15 12 1/5 3/4 1/2   3 3 2 1 1     3 2 10
Team           3 1 4               4
Totals 200:00 82 20/42 11/18 9/11 12 19 31 17 10 11 2 5 19 14 90
        47.6% 61.1% 81.8%
Head coach: MAHMUTI, OKTAY
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

OBRADOVIC, SASA
RheinEnergie
"In the second quarter and at the end of the game, we made some basic mistakes, especially defensively: not boxing out, giving up easy layups, getting beat backdoor and so on. It's a question of experience of how to react in a crucial moment. And this will not come overnight. We're still a very young and new team, in our first Euroleague season. I'm satisfied with our effort. We cannot be negative over the outcome of this game. But we definitely lost to a better opponent."
MAHMUTI, OKTAY
Efes Pilsen
"We had a great shooting percentage in the first half overall and that gave us a lead. We played well-organized basketball against an excellent team. But we still showed a lot of weaknesses that we need to work on. In my opinion, we didn't play good defense at all, over the course of the whole game. We had a good offensive night. But in basketball, if you start out shooting well, games don't always continue like that. If they did, people would only come to watch the first quarter."

Players

FAISON, MARCUS
RheinEnergie
"It's always difficult when you lose. In the second half, we got close enough with a chance to cut into the lead, when we were only down like seven points. But we could never get over that hump. We were down around 10 points and went a couple of minutes without scoring, and that hurt us. But the problem was getting down by 18 in the first half. For some reason we came out, started the game decent and then lost concentration for a some time, and when you do that against a good team they take advantage of that."
HAISLIP, MARCUS
Efes Pilsen
"Basketball is a game of runs. Teams will make a run against you, it's all about how you respond to it. We responded well, finished the game out and won. Everybody knew the importance of the game, everybody was pumped up, we executed and got a lot of open shots. I was shocked at the reception of the crowd. It was like a home game, I had never seen something like that before."
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