Perfect shooters paved Efes road win

Oct 12, 2018 by Euroleague.net Print
Perfect shooters paved Efes road win

Anadolu Efes Istanbul made an impressive start to the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season with a 71-90 road win over FC Bayern Munich on Thursday, and the victors' cause was significantly aided by extremely accurate shooting. Head coach Ergin Ataman's players converted 23 of 33 two-point attempts (69.7%) and 12 of 20 shots from beyond the arc (60%). In fact, three players were faultless from the field as Dogus Balbay, James Anderson and Tibor Pleiss made all 14 of the shots they attempted. Balbay was 3 for 3 from two-point range and added one triple, Anderson went 3 for 3 and 2 for 2, respectively, and Pleiss made 4 two-pointers to go with his only three-point try.

For Balbay, it wasn't just a perfect shooting night; he did pretty much everything else without blemish, too. The veteran guard, entering his eighth EuroLeague season with Efes, complemented his 9 points with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block, and he did not commit any turnovers during his 19 minutes on the floor. That added up to a performance index rating of 19, the highest of his 121-game career in the competition.

Balbay's contribution came at just the right time, too. He entered the game towards the end of the first quarter, with Bayern leading 17-13, and soon scored 5 consecutive points to give Efes a lead it would never relinquish.