2009-10Top 16Round 3
February 11, 2010 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 NOKIA ARENA

Maccabi Electra defeated Efes Pilsen 72-62

Maccabi Electra held off a stern challenge from Efes Pilsen to take a 72-62 win at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv and grab a share of the Group F lead with a 2-1 record. Another brilliant showing from Week 2 MVP Alan Anderson with 23 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals helped the Israeli champs in a game that was closer than the final score would indicate. Efes led early in the fourth quarter and the game was tied three times before the hosts pulled away. Alan Anderson and David Bluthenthal shined with a 9-0 run that broke the game open and put Maccabi ahead by double figures in the closing minutes. The two teams meet again in Istanbul in two weeks. Though the Turkish champs had a decisive height advantage, Maccabi outrebounded them 43-26 thanks in part to Anderson and point guard Doron Perkinss, who grabbed 8. On the other hand, Efes had an efficient offense with just 7 turnovers, while Maccabi committed 18. However 5 of Efes’s turnovers came when it could not afford in the fourth quarter. Bluthenthal added 11 points and Guy Pnini scored all of his 10 in the first half. Charles Smith paced Efes with 15 points, Bootsy Thornton added 13 and Daniel Santiago 10.

Maccabi scored first when Kaya Peker couldn’t handle a pass and Anderson got the ball to Pnini for an easy score. Efes came right back as Kerem Tunceri dished to Ermal Kuqo and then Thornton gave Efes the lead from the line. Kuqo added a nice post move, but back-to-back threes by Pnini and Andrew Wisniewski put the hosts up 10-6. Efes head coach Ergin Atman brought in a new backcourt of Igor Rakocevic and Bojan Popovic and they immediately paid dividends. Rakocevic drained a jumper, Popovic stripped Pnini and coasted for a layup and Rakocevic gave Efes the lead from the line. Maccabi crashed the offensive glass and got a follow-slam from Chuck Eidson. The hosts dominated the glass at both ends and extended the lead to 5 as Perkins grabbed the offensive rebound and whipped a pass to a cutting Bluthenthal. Mario Kasun used his size to score inside, but a Perkins jumper made it 18-13 after 10 minutes.

Maccabi went with a fast lineup with Stephane Lasme at center and Efes was unable to take advantage of Kasun’s 10-centemeter height advantage. Anderson sank a three-pointer that pushed the Maccabi lead to 9. Efes went even bigger inside with Santiago coming in and Preston Shumpert benefited with an offensive rebound and basket. Anderson went coast to coast for an acrobatic basket, but Shumpert matched him with a mid-range jumper. Nearly every Efes possession began with Santiago, but Lasme made sure it didn’t end there. However Lasme’s second foul brought him to the bench and Efes quickly closed the gap as Smith drove for a slam and Santiago spun around D’Or Fischer for a slam. After a timeout, Fischer came back with a tip-in of a Wisniewski miss and a soaring layup to finish a fastbreak. Alas Fischer’s second foul and Santiago’s resulting free throws brought Yaniv Green in at center. The Maccabi lead hit double figures when Anderson set up Pnini for an easy score. Santiago scored on the offensive glass and Smith drained a triple to make it 33-28. Despite a Pnini three, Efes came even closer as Smith scored on a penetration and Bootsy got three the hard way in transition. Bluthenthal and Ender Arslan bth missed from downtown, leaving Maccabi with a 36-33 halftime lead.

Efes continued to go inside to start the second half as Kuqo scored and Thornton posted up Wisniewski for 2 points. But Anderson was in form with an acrobatic basket and a jumper and Wisniewski drew a third foul from Bootsy. Efes grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds before Smith sank a triple. Bootsy sent Fischer to the bench with 3 fouls and tied the game at 42-42 from the line. Thornton then backed down Pnini before hitting a fade-away jumper to put the Turkish champs ahead for the first time since the first quarter. Anderson again flashed his individual skills to get to the basket and tie the score. After a timeout, Pnini’s downcourt pass for a pretty slam from Anderson brought he crowd to its feet, but Smith sat them back down with a three from the corner. In the last minute of the third quarter, Eidson knocked down a three, Shumpert fought for a tough basket and Anderson got to the line for 2 free throws to give the hosts a 51-49 edge.

Santiago tied the score with a basket inside to open the fourth quarter and on the next possession he drew a foul and put the visitors ahead from the line. Bluthenthal fed Eidson for an alley-oop and then an Anderson steal led to a Bluthenthal layup and a Maccabi lead. Arslan knotted the game with a floater over Fischer’s outstretched arm, but Anderson put the yellow-and-blue in the lead once more. After an Efes timeout, Fischer sank a crucial jumper and then stopped Santiago, who lost the ball while going up for a hook shot. Bluthenthal got to the line and made it 61-55 midway through the fourth quarter. Tunceri sank a big three for Efes, but Bluthenthal answered back with a long jumper. Smith brought his team within 3 with a fast break slam, but Maccabi’s main man Anderson went through the Efes defense for a finger roll. Eidson increased the Maccabi lead to 67-60 with 2 free throws with two-and-a-half minutes to play. A Bluthenthal triple from the corner with 1:27 left brought the crowd to its feet and essentially secured the win, though the remaining time was still important for point difference in potential tiebreakers. An Efes turnover and an Anderson slam allowed the fans to sing away the closing seconds of a big Maccabi win.

Thursday, February 11, 2010
Euroleague.net
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Referees: HIERREZUELO, DANIEL; MUHVIC, DUBRAVKO; KOROMILAS, ELIAS
Attendance: 11000
By Quarter1234
Maccabi Electra18181521
Efes Pilsen13201613
End of Quarter1234
Maccabi Electra18365172
Efes Pilsen13334962
Maccabi Electra
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 LIMONAD, RAVIV DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 SHARP, DERRICK 0:05                         1   -1
7 WISNIEWSKI, ANDREW 17:42 5 1/5 1/1     2 2 1   2   1 1 1 1
8 PERKINS, DORON 24:46 2 1/2 0/1   1 7 8 5 1 1     1 2 14
9 GREEN, YANIV 2:11                              
10 PNINI, GUY 28:30 10 2/4 2/4   1 4 5 3   4     3   7
11 ANDERSON, ALAN 37:32 23 8/8 1/4 4/4   9 9 4 3 3     2 4 35
12 LASME, STEPHANE 18:01 4 0/1   4/6 1 5 6 1   3 2   3 5 9
13 EIDSON, CHUCK 35:21 9 2/5 1/2 2/2 3 3 6 4   3     2 3 13
15 BLU, DAVID 16:48 11 3/4 1/6 2/2   2 2 1   1     2 2 7
21 FISCHER, DOR 19:04 8 4/5     3 2 5 2   1 2   4 1 12
Team                                
Totals 200:00 72 21/34 6/18 12/14 9 34 43 21 4 18 4 1 19 18 97
        61.8% 33.3% 85.7%
Head coach: GERSHON, PINI
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 KASUN, MARIO 4:22 2 1/2       1 1     1     1 1 1
7 SMITH, CHARLES 31:22 15 3/5 3/8     3 3   2 1     3 1 10
8 RAKOCEVIC, IGOR 8:40 3 1/3 0/2 1/2       1 2 2     1 2  
9 SHUMPERT, PRESTON 32:25 6 3/8     3 2 5 1 1     2     6
10 TUNCERI, KEREM 21:19 3   1/1     1 1 3   1     1 1 6
11 THORNTON, BOOTSY 34:29 13 3/7 0/4 7/9 1 2 3 3 3     1 3 6 14
14 PEKER, KAYA 7:42   0/4     1   1     1 1     2 -1
21 NACHBAR, BOSTJAN 5:34   0/1 0/2     1 1               -2
22 POPOVIC, BOJAN 8:00 2 1/1 0/1     2 2   1       2 1 3
23 KUQO, ERMAL 21:28 6 3/5     2 2 4   1 1     4 2 6
25 SANTIAGO, DANIEL 13:57 10 3/8   4/4 2   2 1       1 2 3 8
33 ARSLAN, ENDER 10:42 2 1/2 0/2     1 1           1   -1
Team           2   2               2
Totals 200:00 62 19/46 4/20 12/15 11 15 26 9 10 7 1 4 18 19 52
        41.3% 20% 80%
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN

Head Coaches

GERSHON, PINI
Maccabi Electra
"I always say that on days that you score 72 points and make 18 turnovers it's a good thing you have defense. We played with many line-ups and in most of them we played good defense. It's a very important win although there's still a very long way. I'm sure that in Istanbul, Efes will shoot better than here. We played very good defense today, but in two weeks we'll need to play better and force more turnovers. Such games can really influence on a player's mental side, and that's why we made a lot of mistakes and committed 18 turnovers, some of them we shouldn't have. We need to try to play in our style, but not to force it, and that's what caused our turnovers. We can't be greedy. We played well against a good team that I highly respect. They have very good players, and a very deep bench. We forced them to do things that worked better for us, but no one can assure it will work in the next game. Not many players in the Euroleague can stop Alan [Anderson] one on one. His index rating in the Top 16 proves he showed up for this stage. This is only the first half of our clash with Efes."
ATAMAN, ERGIN
Efes Pilsen
"It was a bad day for us on offense. We missed 16 three-point shots, and more than half of them were open shots that we usually make. In some parts of the game we used our low-post offense very well with Daniel Santiago and Ermal Kuqo, but in the last quarter Maccabi improved their aggressiveness on defense. There were many fouls in the low-post on Santiago, but for the referees it's not easy to take these calls in such atmosphere. 10 points isn't the real difference between the teams, because we controlled the game and it was a close one. We made a lot of turnovers in the closing minutes of the game. I don't think that's a big advantage for Maccabi, and I believe in two weeks from now in Istanbul we have a big chance to recover from the 10-point loss, because we saw that our game strategy isn't easy for Maccabi to defend, and I don't think once again we will miss these open shots. I don't think 10 points difference is enough for Maccabi. Maccabi plays with Pnini and Bluthenthal in the power forward position and it created a problem for us and we chose to use Santiago and Kuqo who have more low-post offense, and this is why Peker didn't play much tonight. Every team has a chance to win both home and road games. I think that there's a 90% chance all teams will have 3 wins at the end of this group, and the point difference will decide the first and second position. Maccabi will find more aggressive fans in Istanbul than we found here, and there the 10-point difference isn't much."

Players

ANDERSON, ALAN
Maccabi Electra
"We played 40 minutes together in high intensity. When we play tough like that, it's very difficult to beat us. We have several players who can score, and once we make stops on defense and control the rebound, our job is easier, and today we were tough on defense. In all of our last games, including the loss in Siena, we had a strong belief that we can win."
EIDSON, CHUCK
Maccabi Electra
"It wasn't our best game in this stage, but we won and we're very happy for us. Now we need to see what we do in the following games to know where we stand. We never cared about what people said about us and if we belong in this stage. Everybody mentioned Montepaschi and Real as the favorites, but we proved anything can happen in this group. We did our job and won today. I hope we'll continue to win and play better. In two weeks we play against the same team on the road and a lot of things can happen, but we'll go there to win."
SANTIAGO, DANIEL
Efes Pilsen
"I think we're still growing into our potential, and we can still play better than we did today. We had some misconcentration in the closing minutes, and that's what helped Maccabi make a 10-point difference. It has been our problem throughout the entire season, but lately we're coping better with it. We were strong in the game until the last minutes, but then we lost focus and I hope we will recover from it in Istanbul. We first need to look for the win in the next game, and then try to beat Maccabi by more than 10. I've been in the Euroleague for many years and have seen much crazier things than that happen, so obviously we still have a chance."
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