2020-21Regular SeasonRound 6
October 30, 2020 CET: 20:00
Local time: 21:00 PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP STADIUM

Efes rocks Reds on road in Larkin's return

Anadolu Efes Istanbul celebrated the return of Shane Larkin with a strong 79-84 road victory over Olympiacos Piraeus on Friday. Vasilije Micic poured in 20 points with 7 assists while Larkin, in his season debut, joined Rodrigue Beaubois in scoring 15 points. Efes improved its record to 2-3. Bryant Dunston picked up 8 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks, the first of which made him the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague's all-time leader. Hassan Martin paced Olympiacos with 11 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks. Kostas Sloukas chipped in 10 points and 7 assists and Shaquielle McKissic scored 10 points in the loss. The Reds have now lost two straight games to drop to 3-3.

A moment of silence before the game honored the victims of Friday's earthquake in Turkey and Greece. Krunoslav Simon's free throw started the scoring with Kostas Papanikolaou's three-point play getting Olympiacos on the board. Beaubois and Papanikolaou traded threes before Dunston had two baskets and Chris Singleton nailed a three-pointer for a 12-17 Efes lead. Octavius Ellis hit 4 free throws to keep Olympiacos close but Micic and Beaubois both downed triples to extend the visitors' margin as Efes stayed in front by 26-29 after 10 minutes. Tibor Pleiss reeled off the first 6 points of the second quarter before Charles Jenkins finally scored for Olympiacos after more than 2 minutes. Micic followed with a three-point play and Larkin drained a three-pointer, his first points of the season, for a 28-41 Efes cushion. Olympiacos held Efes scoreless for more than 5 minutes but could only pull within 35-41 as Aaron Harrison and Vassilis Spanoulis both hit from long range. Harrison added another triple and the score was 38-44 at intermission. The run continued at the start of the second half with McKissic scoring four points in a 9-0 burst for a 47-44 Olympiacos advantage. Singleton's three-pointer gave Efes its first points almost 3 minutes into the third quarter and Micic followed to regain the lead 47-50. Sloukas answered with a three-pointer to tie only to see Beaubois pick up 7 points in 2-11 surge to move Efes ahead 52-61. Georgios Printezis hit a three-pointer as Olympiacos got back within 57-63 after 30 minutes. Beaubois added another basket early in the fourth quarter before Larkin began to take control with 2 three-pointers and 2 free throws to extend the Efes advantage to 63-75. Sloukas converted a three-point play as Olympiacos had a 7-0 run over 2 minutes to cut the gap to 70-75. Spanoulis's three-pointer and Martin's score cut the deficit to 75-78. Larkin, however, made sure he wouldn't lose his first game of the season with a tough reverse layup with just 48 seconds remaining and Micic drained 2 foul shots with 13 seconds for a 77-82 score.

History for Dunston

Bryant Dunston made history in the opening minutes as he blocked a shot by Kostas Papanikolaou. That gave made him the all-time EuroLeague leader in blocked shots. He had entered the game even with Fran Vazquez at 249 each, the Spaniard needing 254 games to collect that total while Dunston has played 197 contests. With another block later in the game, Dunston's record is now up to 251.

Season debut for Larkin

Efes superstar Shane Larkin made his 2020-21 season debut with 51 seconds left in the first quarter. Larkin had missed Efes's first four games with an injury. He ended Friday's game with 15 points on 4-for-13 field goal shooting and 4-for-7 free throws to go with 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block and 0 turnovers.

Telling numbers

Efes controlled the boards with a 31-23 rebounding advantage, including 12 offensive rebounds.

Notable

Another Efes center, Tibor Pleiss, collected 5 of those rebounds to become the 18th player in EuroLeague history with 1,000 rebounds or more.

Next games

Olympiacos will head on the road for Round 7 and look to snap the two-game losing streak at Zenit St. Petersburg on Thursday, November 5. Efes returns home where it will host Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv on the same night.

Vasilije Micic - Anadolu Efes Istanbul - EB20
Friday, October 30, 2020
Euroleague.net
Referees: RYZHYK, BORYS; BISSANG, JOSEPH; BALAK, AMIT
Attendance: 0
By Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus26121922
Anadolu Efes Istanbul29151921
End of Quarter1234
Olympiacos Piraeus26385779
Anadolu Efes Istanbul29446384
Olympiacos Piraeus
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
2 HARRISON, AARON 17:41 7 0/2 2/3 1/2   3 3 1   1     4 1 3
6 KONIARIS, ANTONIOS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS 23:25 6 0/1 2/4     1 1 4 1       1 3 11
11 SLOUKAS, KOSTAS 23:48 10 3/4 1/2 1/1   1 1 7 1 3     1 2 15
12 MARTIN, HASSAN 26:06 11 4/5   3/4 3 3 6   2 1 3   2 2 19
14 VEZENKOV, SASHA 14:31 5 1/1 1/2     1 1   1 1     1 2 6
15 PRINTEZIS, GEORGIOS 19:37 9 2/4 1/1 2/4   1 1     1   1 2 3 5
16 PAPANIKOLAOU, KOSTAS 18:54 6 1/4 1/2 1/1   2 2 2       1 1 1 5
17 JEAN-CHARLES, LIVIO 5:52   0/1 0/2         1     3 1 2   -2
22 JENKINS, CHARLES 15:05 7 2/3 1/1     2 2     2   1 4   1
32 ELLIS, OCTAVIUS 13:54 8 1/1   6/6           1 1   3 2 7
77 MCKISSIC, SHAQUIELLE 21:07 10 4/6   2/4   3 3 4 3 3     3 2 12
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 79 18/32 9/17 16/22 5 18 23 19 8 13 7 4 24 18 85
        56.3% 52.9% 72.7%
Head coach: BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
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
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 LARKIN, SHANE 20:09 15 1/6 3/7 4/7   3 3 1 1   1 3 1 5 10
1 BEAUBOIS, RODRIGUE 29:18 15 2/5 3/3 2/2   1 1 2   2 1 1 3 2 12
2 SINGLETON, CHRIS 32:09 7   2/3 1/4 3 1 4   2       4 4 9
4 BALBAY, DOGUS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11 GAZI, ERTEN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 MOERMAN, ADRIEN 12:43   0/1       1 1 1 1 1       1 2
19 TUNCER, BUGRAHAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 PLEISS, TIBOR 9:06 6 3/3     2 3 5     1       1 11
22 MICIC, VASILIJE 37:49 20 5/9 2/6 4/5 1 1 2 7 1 5   3 3 5 15
23 ANDERSON, JAMES 7:24 2     2/2   1 1           1 1 3
42 DUNSTON, BRYANT 26:02 8 3/5   2/2 1 4 5 2 2   2   5 3 15
44 SIMON, KRUNOSLAV 25:20 11 5/5 0/2 1/3 2 3 5 2 1 3     1 2 13
Team           3 1 4     1         3
Totals 200:00 84 19/34 10/21 16/25 12 19 31 15 8 13 4 7 18 24 93
        55.9% 47.6% 64%
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN

Head Coaches

BARTZOKAS, GEORGIOS
Olympiacos Piraeus
"Our effort in the second half was not enough to beat such a talented team like Efes. At the same time, they have a lot of experience and know where to attack when they need to execute with patience. Their backcourt was decisive in the result. I don't really understand our defensive performance in the first quarter. We allowed almost 30 points. It wasn't enough because when you allow these talented players to gain confidence during the game you need to react, not act. Anyway, this is the EuroLeague, and we need to learn from every game. We need to focus on the next game. After a big win you need to forget it immediately. And after a loss you need to analyze what happened and to play better then next game."
ATAMAN, ERGIN
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"Shane Larkin came back, and I think my team came back. We started to play our regular game because this is the game we played the last two seasons, with penetration and passes and good pick-and-roll offense. I believe it is a very important victory for us, for our morale, because we started the season with some losses that were not in our expectations. But to beat Olympiacos here is very important for us because we know that they beat Maccabi and Milan on this court. And more than this, it's important that we found our confidence. I believe that we will play much better."

Players

MICIC, VASILIJE
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"It was a very important victory for us. Unfortunately, we didn't start too well in the season. There is still pressure on us because we kept the team together, but after this game we can show a little smile because the last three games that we lost we didn't play well. But today I'm very happy – especially for Shane returning. We knew how much we missed him. Everybody knows how important he is for us. But all of the players had a great approach to the game."
LARKIN, SHANE
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"I'm just glad that we got the win, that we could come out here against a good team in an away arena get a big win for our team. That's all that matters and I'm glad that we are leaving here winners. That's the mindset – we're not losing any more – that we need to have. We didn't start the season the way we wanted to so you just have to come in here and have that mindset. Last year was a great year for us. But we can't continue to ride that happiness from last year. It's a new year and we have to come into every game with that mindset. I just got here, it's my first game in seven months, but I am just trying to bring that mindset to the team."
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