Efes Pilsen has kept up its home winning streak and its growing string of victories in the Euroleague on Wednesday with a well-fought 75-71 decision against visiting Unicaja Malaga of Spain in Group A. Two free throws each by Omer Onan and Karem Tunceri in the final 10 seconds sealed the 27th consecutive home win for Efes despite a 12-point comeback by Unicaja in the second half. Efes is now 4-1 and tied for first place in Group A despite having lost its opener at Olympiakos. Malaga falls to 2-3. Rookie center Kaspars Kambala was a force for Efes with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Marcus Brown added 14 points and Onan 13 for the winners. Malaga placed only one scorer in double figures, Milan Gurovic with 10.

The game started with several of the locals stars stepping up to shine while Malaga, using more players, preferred an ensemble approach. Kambala was the force on the boards with 6 in the first quarter and his six straight points late allowed Efes to lead 20-16 after 10 minutes. The rookie center used his quickness to get around big Frederic Weiss to the boards. If they were defensive rebounds, Brown took them and ran. In the set offense, Brown looked to Okur to draw out Malaga's big men. Malaga somehow hung in offensively with various small individual contributions, including newly-signed center Mario Bennett slamming down an offensive rebound for his first basket just 24 hours after joining the team in Istanbul.

Efes opened up its biggest lead to that point with an 13-8 run to start the second quarter. It featured Kambala inside to start, then Omer Onan canning two jumpers and Brown feeding Saulius Stombergas for a three-pointer. A pair of threes by Milan Gurovic accounted for most of Malaga's production to that point. The lead hit 10 points, 36-26, before Malaga managed to react, first with Weiss drawing Kambala's third foul and making the free throws. Gurovic added a three-point play and two free throws around a Chuck Kornegay hook shot to complete a 4-9 run that cut the lead to 40-35. When Mehmet Okur missed two foulshots, Malaga had the chance to cut the lead to 2 or 3 points with the final possession. The visitors missed inside however and Karem Tunceri switched hands for a nifty fastbreak layup at the other end to give Efes a 42-35 halftime lead.