2018-19Regular SeasonRound 22
Anadolu Efes Istanbul 93
Herbalife Gran Canaria 74
February 07, 2019 CET: 18:30
Local time: 20:30 SINAN ERDEM SPORTS HALL.

Simon leads Efes past Gran Canaria

Anadolu Efes Istanbul got back to its winning ways by downing visiting Herbalife Gran Canaria 93-74 at Sinan Erdem Dome on Thursday night in Istanbul. Efes improved to 14-8 to remain in fourth place in the standings, while Gran Canaria dropped to 6-16. The hosts took the lead for good early in the third quarter with a 15-2 run and then opened a double-digit lead at the start of the fourth from which they never looked back. Krunoslav Simon paced Efes with a career-high 25 points, along with 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Shane Larkin added 18 points in victory. Clevin Hannah netted 16 for Gran Canaria, Marcus Eriksson scored 13 and D.J. Strawberry had 10 points in defeat.

Efes started fast behind Simon and opened an 8-0 lead. Simon had 8 points – including 2 triples – in the first 4 minutes, but so did Kim Tillie at the other end. Tibor Pleiss scored 5 points – including a three-point play, that helped open a 22-12 lead. However, back-to-back dunks from Ondrej Balvin and a three-pointer from Eriksson cut it to 26-19 after 10 minutes before Eulis Baez and Eriksson combined to score the first 10 points of the second quarter to give Gran Canaria a 26-29 edge. Adrien Moerman snapped a 0-13 run and Efes restored the lead, 33-32, with a three-point play from Larkin. A triple from Hannah helped Gran Canaria go up again, 33-39. Larkin answered with 8 consecutive points, including a pair of triples, but Hannah's third triple of the night gave the visitors a 43-46 halftime advantage. Efes restored the advantage early in the second half with a 15-2 run that started and finished with dunks from Bryant Dunston and featured a triple apiece from Vasilije Micic, Dogus Balbay and Simon. Siim-Sander Vene ended the visitors' drought, but Dunston had a basket-plus-foul and Simon nailed his fifth triple of the night to give Efes a 69-60 cushion at the end of the third quarter. A pair of close-range baskets from Moerman helped the margin go up to 75-60 after 73 seconds in the fourth. After the margin reached 16 points, Gran Canaria answered with a 0-8 run, but Micic strung together 11 points – a runner, a long jumper, a driving layup and a triple – to get Efes to 87-72, which effectively sealed the outcome.

Simon says

Krunoslav Simon fueled Efes's efforts in this game. He had 10 points in the opening 4 and a half minutes to help Efes to a double-digit lead and then scored 11 points in the third quarter, helping fuel a 15-2 run then. He then capped the quarter with a triple. He had 23 points after three quarters, and finished with 25 on a near-perfect shooting night, making 3 of 3 for two-points, 5 of 6 three-pointers and 4 of 4 free throws.

Big-time contributors

Shane Larkin tied his season-high with 18 points, Vasilije Micic scored 11 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter, and Bryant Dunston was huge with 11 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks.

Game-changing moment

Gran Canaria had a 46-50 lead early in the third when Efes forced 3 quick turnovers and turned them into a 7-0 run. Triples from Dogus Balbay and Simon continued the run and Dunston's dunk capped a 15-2 spurt that got the hosts to 61-52. The visitors never got closer than 4 points the rest of the way.

Up and down

Efes won the first quarter by 7 points. Gran Canaria took the second quarter by 10 before Efes topped Gran Canaria by 12 points, 26-14, in the third.

Next game

The Turkish Airlines EuroLeague will be on a break next week with teams engaged in domestic cups. When they return in two weeks for Round 23, Gran Canaria will travel to face CSKA Moscow, while Efes will play at home against Olympiacos Piraeus in a big game in the race for home-court advantage in the playoffs.

Krunoslav Simon - Anadolu Efes Istanbul - EB18
Thursday, February 7, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: LAMONICA, LUIGI; PANTHER, ANNE; ZAMOJSKI, JAKUB
Attendance: 3467 (Tentative)
By Quarter1234
Anadolu Efes Istanbul26172624
Herbalife Gran Canaria19271414
End of Quarter1234
Anadolu Efes Istanbul26436993
Herbalife Gran Canaria19466074
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 22:56 18 3/6 2/5 6/6   3 3 6 1 1     1 4 24
1 BEAUBOIS, RODRIGUE 12:57   0/2 0/1   1   1     3     3 1 -7
4 BALBAY, DOGUS 18:17 3   1/1   1 1 2 1 2       3 1 6
6 BIRSEN, METECAN 1:31               1         2   -1
12 MOTUM, BROCK 5:20 2 1/2 0/2             1         -2
18 MOERMAN, ADRIEN 33:09 9 4/5 0/1 1/1 1 5 6 2         2 1 14
19 TUNCER, BUGRAHAN 4:10     0/1     1 1   1 1       1 1
21 PLEISS, TIBOR 11:10 7 3/3 0/2 1/1   3 3     1     1 1 7
22 MICIC, VASILIJE 21:41 16 4/6 2/6 2/2   1 1 3 1 4     2 4 13
23 ANDERSON, JAMES 12:44 2 1/3       1 1 1         3   -1
42 DUNSTON, BRYANT 28:50 11 5/7   1/1 2 5 7 4 2   2 1 2 2 23
44 SIMON, KRUNOSLAV 27:15 25 3/3 5/6 4/4   4 4 3 2 4       5 34
Team           4 1 5               5
Totals 200:00 93 24/37 10/25 15/15 9 25 34 21 9 15 2 1 19 20 116
        64.9% 40% 100%
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN
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
Herbalife Gran Canaria
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 OLIVER, ALBERT 6:13   0/1       1 1 1         1    
5 HANNAH, CLEVIN 25:06 16 2/5 4/6   1 1 2 5 1 6   1 4 4 12
8 ERIKSSON, MARCUS 22:35 13 4/4 1/7 2/2   1 1 1 2       1 6 16
9 VENE, SIIM-SANDER 11:07 3 0/2 1/1             1     3   -3
12 BALVIN, ONDREJ 23:25 8 4/5     3 1 4   1 1     1 1 11
13 BAEZ, EULIS 21:48 6 2/2   2/2 1 1 2 1 2 2       1 10
14 PASECNIKS, ANZEJS 9:05 1 0/2   1/2 1   1 1           1 1
21 PAULI, ORIOL 14:54 5 1/2 0/2 3/4   4 4 2 1 3     1 2 6
22 RABASEDA, XAVIER 21:17   0/2 0/2     3 3 1   2 1 1 4   -6
24 STRAWBERRY, DJ 24:41 10 1/3 1/4 5/5   2 2 2         2 2 9
40 FISCHER, LUKE 7:30 4 1/1   2/4 1 2 3     1     1 2 5
41 TILLIE, KIM 12:19 8 1/2 2/3   1   1 2         2   7
Team             3 3               3
Totals 200:00 74 16/31 9/25 15/19 8 19 27 16 7 16 1 2 20 19 71
        51.6% 36% 78.9%
Head coach: GARCIA, VICTOR

Head Coaches

ATAMAN, ERGIN
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"This is the key to win the game. Second quarter we played terrible. We missed shots, we missed open fast breaks and allowed them 27 points. We started playing aggressive on the ball in the beginning of the second half and started making more help with fives who waited inside in the first half. We played aggressive, especially Balbay who played excellent defense against Eriksson, and so did Micic against Hannah. On offense, we found our usual tempo and at the end reached our regular field goal percentage on two-point and three-point shots. Shane Larkin had a great game tonight, he was important for us, and we won. It was a difficult game, but we won by a 19-point difference. We have a difficult schedule coming up. In the next four games we will see if we will take one of the top four spots in the standings. Every game is like a final for us. We need to play all our home games like we did in the second half. Aggressive on the ball, and share the ball on offense. We played a lot of excellent games on our home floor, tonight we did not play very well in the first half, but if we find our regular game, aggressiveness like we had in big games earlier this season, we will have good chances to win these big games coming up. We also need more fans. They made great support, but this gym is for 15,000 people. I believe we will have a sold out arena for the next three big home-court games and the fans will motivate my team."
GARCIA, VICTOR
Herbalife Gran Canaria
"We started the game with some problems on defense; they were scoring real easy. We came back. In the last 5 minutes of the first quarter and in the second quarter we were solid on defense, did not allow easy baskets, and we went into halftime with good feelings. We knew they were going to react. They increased the level on defense in the second half. We gave them a lot of opportunities to score easy baskets after our turnovers."

Players

SIMON, KRUNOSLAV
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"It is nice when you score. I was in a good shape today, I made shots. It is a good to be in good form before the domestic cup and all the important games we are looking forward to. I said at halftime, if we continue playing soft it will be hard to win. But in the second half we showed how we are supposed to play on our home court with hard defense. They scored only 28 points, so it was a good game for us at the end."