2019-20Regular SeasonRound 8
Anadolu Efes Istanbul 90
Zenit St Petersburg 88
November 14, 2019 CET: 18:30
Local time: 20:30 SINAN ERDEM SPORTS HALL.

Efes holds off Zenit for sixth win

Anadolu Efes Istanbul never trailed and led by as many as 25 points before needing to hold late for a 90-88 win over visiting Zenit St Petersburg on Thursday night at Sinan Erdem Dome. Efes improved to 6-2, while Zenit dropped to 2-6 in its premier Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season. Efes took the lead from the start and, led by the usual suspects Vasilije Micic and Shane Larkin as well as center Sertac Sanli, built a big lead that reached 25 points midway through the third quarter. But Zenit's Austin Hollins caught fire from long range and, with help from Gustavo Ayon and Anton Pushkov, the visitors chipped away at the deficit. Zenit scored 38 points in the fourth quarter, but did not manage to complete the comeback. Micic scored 24 points on a perfect shooting night, Larkin had 22 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds, while big men Sanli and Tibor Pleiss scored 13 points apiece in victory. Hollins scored 26 points on 7-for-11 three-point shooting for Zenit, Ayon netted 21 points, Pushkov had 12 and Renfroe dished 10 assists in the losing effort.

Efes took control from the get-go with Pleiss scoring twice from close range and Chris Singleton and Micic connecting from long range to open a 10-2 lead. Zenit kept in touch by scoring 9 second-chance points, including a three-pointer from Hollins. But Micic had his second triple and also hit a long baseline jumper at the buzzer to make it 21-14 after 10 minutes. Larkin nailed a pair of threes early in the second to open a 29-19 advantage before 6 points from Sanli and another triple from Larkin fueled a 9-2 run to make it 38-23. Zenit kept crashing the offensive boards, which resulted in a triple from Dmitry Khvostov and a jumper from Puhskov that cut the margin to 42-30 at halftime. Hollins knocked down a triple after the break, but Efes dominated after that. Larkin had a triple, Micic served Pleiss for a big dunk, and Singleton had a three-point play. Micic's three-pointer put 61-37 on the scoreboard before Hollins snapped a 15-2 run with a corner three-pointer of his own. A couple more close-range baskets from Larkin extended the margin to 25 points, 67-52, before Zenit started melting away the deficit. Hollins had 6 points late in the third quarter, including a last-second triple, and his transition three-pointer early in the fourth made it 71-55. Pushkov and Ayon combined to score the next 12 points for Zenit to get within 76-67 with 6 minutes to go. Micic had 7 points on one end and Ayon 6 more on the other before the sixth triple by Hollins helped get Zenit within 83-78. The seventh triple from Hollins cut the difference to 85-83 with 23 seconds left, but Efes quickly went the other way and Pleiss had a dunk-plus-foul that sealed the outcome.

Sanli's big first half

In the absence of Bryant Dunston, seldom used Efes center Sertac Sanli stepped up in a major way, especially in the second quarter. The veteran big man had played only 69 seconds in one appearance so far this season and had played more than 10 minutes only twice before in his career. But in this game, Sanli entered with 1:46 left in the first quarter and did not leave the floor the rest of the first half. Before halftime, he had 10 points, 2 rebounds and 1 block in 11:46 minutes played - all career-highs.

Taking control of the glass

Zenit pulled down 11 offensive rebounds in the first half and scored 16 second-chance points off of them. It was the main reason the visitors were hanging to a 42-30 halftime deficit, but Efes allowed just 1 offensive rebound in the second half, including zero offensive boards in the third quarter when it opened up its big lead.

Perfect Micic

Vasilije Micic led Efes with 24 points without missing a shot. He shot 4 for 4 on two-pointers, hit 3 for 3 from three-point land and made all 7 of his free throws.

Hollins keeps sinking threes

Austin Hollins hit 7 triples on 18 attempts in the first six rounds and had shot 15 for 25 from long range in the last two games. He is the first player to knock down 7 three-pointers in a game this season.

Next up

Next week in Round 9 both teams will be on the road on Tuesday. Efes will visit LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne, while Zenit travels to play Valencia Basket.

Vasilije Micic - Anadolu Efes Istanbul - EB19
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: BOLTAUZER, MATEJ; JOVCIC, MILIVOJE; AMBROSOV, MYKOLA
Attendance: 10563
By Quarter1234
Anadolu Efes Istanbul21212721
Zenit St Petersburg14162038
End of Quarter1234
Anadolu Efes Istanbul21426990
Zenit St Petersburg14305088
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 29:14 22 5/6 3/7 3/3 2 2 4 5 1 2     2 2 25
1 BEAUBOIS, RODRIGUE 16:52 4 1/2 0/2 2/2       1   1   1 2 3 1
2 SINGLETON, CHRIS 25:12 6 1/3 1/2 1/1 1 5 6 1   1   1 4 4 8
3 SAYBIR, YIGITCAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 BALBAY, DOGUS 12:36   0/1           3   1     1    
8 GECIM, TOLGA 4:52     0/2         2              
15 SANLI, SERTAC 16:55 13 4/5   5/7   2 2   1 2 1   2 4 14
19 TUNCER, BUGRAHAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21 PLEISS, TIBOR 21:48 13 5/7 0/1 3/3   3 3     1 2   1 3 16
22 MICIC, VASILIJE 31:11 24 4/4 3/3 7/7 1 2 3 6   5     3 6 31
23 ANDERSON, JAMES 24:38 4 1/1 0/1 2/2 1 7 8 1   1 1   1 3 14
25 PETERS, ALEC 16:42 4 1/1 0/4 2/2   3 3 1   1     1 1 3
Team           2   2     2          
Totals 200:00 90 22/30 7/22 25/27 7 24 31 20 2 17 4 2 17 26 112
        73.3% 31.8% 92.6%
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
Zenit St Petersburg
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 IVERSON, COLTON 9:28 2 1/1     1 1 2               4
6 ALBICY, ANDREW 16:01   0/1 0/2   1 1 2 1         3 2 -1
7 PONKRASHOV, ANTON 14:23 5 1/2 1/4     1 1 2 1       4   1
9 HOLLINS, AUSTIN 29:50 26 0/2 7/11 5/5         3 1   1 5 3 19
10 THOMAS, WILL 21:45 2 1/4 0/2     1 1 2     1 1   3 3
12 RENFROE, ALEX 21:06 5 1/2 1/3     1 1 10 1     1 1   12
13 KHVOSTOV, DMITRY 6:26 5 1/2 1/2         1             4
14 PUSHKOV, ANTON 10:17 12 6/8     1 3 4     2     4 1 9
16 TRUSHKIN, VLADISLAV 7:43   0/2 0/3   1 2 3 1         2   -3
21 ABROMAITIS, TIM 14:15 4 1/2   2/2 1 2 3 2         2 2 8
25 PONITKA, MATEUSZ 22:18 6 3/6     4 2 6 3 2 1     3 3 13
34 AYON, GUSTAVO 26:28 21 8/11   5/6 2 1 3 4 1 4 1 1 2 3 22
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 88 23/43 10/27 12/13 12 16 28 26 8 8 2 4 26 17 93
        53.5% 37% 92.3%
Head coach: PLAZA, JOAN

Head Coaches

ATAMAN, ERGIN
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"It is unacceptable to allow 38 points in the fourth quarter. Unacceptable for a team of our level. We started to get funny, we lost our game discipline 100%. We did not get any contribution from our bench players in the second half after we were up 25 points. We will think about that, we will work on it, but it is a huge problem what happened in the last quarter for a team that has a goal to win the EuroLeague."
PLAZA, JOAN
Zenit St Petersburg
"We know we are a rookie team in this competition and we accept it in a humble way. We know we played against a team with a lot of capacity that will probably be in the Final Four, with big talent even on the bench, even with injured players. We knew how tough it could be tonight. I think in the first half we played a little bit scared; maybe it is my mistake that I scared my players. We know the talent Efes has on its hands, but we don't want to depend on the opponent, we want to depend on our method. We will try to keep growing during this season while suffering defeats like tonight. But if someone told us this summer we will lose by just 2 points against Efes, I would say it is crazy. We were competitive, we showed our best face from the halfway point of the third quarter. When we were 25 points down, we still believed we can show our best face and step by step try to have any chance at the end with it. We don't have good enough talent, good enough rotation, but we demonstrated if we play with faith, with aggressiveness, if we are able to play brave, we are able to compete with any team in Europe. We are still in the process, we created a team for the EuroCup; we are happy to play in the EuroLeague and we are learning from the top teams like Efes. I am happy for my players, but we need to avoid ups and downs like in this game. Even if we have the capacity to win games, we can't constantly recover from 25 points down like we did tonight."

Players

LARKIN, SHANE
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"Every win in the EuroLeague is important, but we can't be satisfied. We had a 19-point lead in going into the fourth quarter and we kind of relaxed as if they will give up. But they came up, pressured us in the fourth quarter, we started turning the ball over and then they made their comeback. If we want to be one of those elite teams that continuously makes it to the Final Four, continuously wins games, we can't accept performances like this. Coach needs to be tough on us and we have to be tough on each other."
MICIC, VASILIJE
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"We did not close the game well. We made a run in the third quarter, we had a great beginning of the third quarter. Unfortunately, we had to finish it off in the last minutes. But that is a EuroLeague game and something we will probably have to face many times this year. Most important is to win. I want to congratulate my teammates, we put in great hustle, we missed two important players, and besides that everything was good. I did not know [that I did not miss a shot], honestly. I never think about it, the game is a live thing, I adjust in the moment and that is something I have been doing since I came here."