2018-19Regular SeasonRound 17
Zalgiris Kaunas 58
Anadolu Efes Istanbul 79
January 08, 2019 CET: 19:30
Local time: 20:30 ZALGIRIO ARENA

Efes's defense dumps Zalgiris

Anadolu Efes Istanbul put on a defensive display in dumping Zalgiris Kaunas 58-79 on Tuesday evening at Zalgirio Arena. Efes outscored Zalgiris in every quarter in posting a convincing win to take its record to 11-6. Adrien Moerman tied career highs with 23 points and 4 three-pointers made to pace the winners. Moerman scored twice in a 0-12 second-quarter run that gave Efes the lead for good. Bryant Dunston added 13 points and Rodrigue Beaubois scored 12. Marius Grigonus scored 9 to lead Zalgiris, which lost its third straight game to fall to 7-10. Zalgiris is 3-7 at home this season.

Dunston dominated early with his team's first three baskets as the teams settled into a 6-6 tie. Aaron White got going to push Zalgiris ahead 12-11, but Beaubois came off the bench for 5 quick points that lifted the visitors to a 14-16 edge after 10 minutes. Young Laurynas Birutis helped the hosts regain the lead early in the second quarter, but it was short-lived; Balbay and Moerman each hit threes in a 0-12 Efes surge to lead 17-28. Nate Wolters stopped the bleeding for the hosts only the see Moerman remain on fire. The forward converted a three-point play and Kruno Simon netted free throws as the lead swelled to 22-38. Zalgiris regained its confidence with 7 straight points, the last ones coming via a Marius Grigonus three-pointer. Dunston scored inside to make it 29-40 at the break. Moerman picked up where he left off with a triple to start the second half. Brandon Davies got Zalgiris within 10, but Simon responded with free throws and a triple for a 33-48 Efes advantage. Back-to-back threes by Moerman and Beaubois matched Efes's biggest lead from the first half, 38-54. Moerman kept scoring and took the difference to 18 and that's how it stood, 45-63, after Dunston's three-point play to end the third quarter. Shane Larkin banked in a floater early in the fourth quarter to make it a 20-point game. The lead peaked at 53-79 on a Shane Larkin three-pointer with 2 minutes remaining as Efes coasted to victory.

Game-changing run

Zalgiris took a 17-16 lead early in the second quarter, but it would be all Efes after that. Adrien Moerman scored twice in a 0-12 Efes run and the hosts never got closer than 9 again.

The Moerman effect

Moerman was so hot in the second quarter that he nearly outscored Zalgiris by himself. In fact, he had through the first 8 minutes of the quarter, 8-13, before the Lithuanian champs rallied for 7 points at the tail end of the half.

Deja vu defense?

Zalgiris had its lowest-scoring home game in more than four years since it was held to 57 points in a loss to Anadolu Efes Istanbul in December 2014. The current Efes squad has little in common with the team that inflicted pain on Zalgiris in that game; only Dogus Balbay remains on the Efes squad, while swingman James Anderson, now with Efes, scored 18 for Zalgiris that night in his debut EuroLeague season.

Did you notice?

While it may be a game that many on the Zalgiris squad want to forget, it was a memorable night for teenage guard Lukas Uleckas, who made his EuroLeague debut and scored his first basket with 3 minutes to go. Uleckas played a total of 4:57 and finished with 2 points and 1 assist.

Round 18 games

Both Zalgiris and Efes return to action on Thursday and both will play in Istanbul. Efes heads home to welcome Khimki Moscow Region, while Zalgiris faces Fenerbahce Beko in a rematch from last season's EuroLeague semifinals.

Adrien Moerman - Anadolu Efes Istanbul - EB18
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Euroleague.net
Referees: HIERREZUELO, DANIEL; ROCHA, FERNANDO; PANTHER, ANNE
Attendance: 14738
By Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas14151613
Anadolu Efes Istanbul16242316
End of Quarter1234
Zalgiris Kaunas14294558
Anadolu Efes Istanbul16406379
Zalgiris Kaunas
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
0 DAVIES, BRANDON 17:42 8 4/9     2 2 4     2     4   1
1 WALTON JR, DERRICK 13:10 7 2/3 0/1 3/4       2   1   1   2 6
3 WOLTERS, NATE 21:30 7 2/5 1/3     3 3 2 1 2   1   1 6
7 WALKUP, THOMAS 15:41 5 1/1 1/1     2 2 2 2 2     2 1 8
10 ULECKAS, LUKAS 4:57 2 1/1           1             3
13 JANKUNAS, PAULIUS 15:39 2 0/3   2/2 1 3 4           2 2 3
17 BIRUTIS, LAURYNAS 16:52 5 2/6   1/2 1 1 2 1 1     1 1 1 3
21 MILAKNIS, ARTURAS 20:09 2 1/1 0/3           1 1         -1
30 WHITE, AARON 20:55 6 3/5 0/1   1 4 5 1 1     1 1   8
31 JOKUBAITIS, ROKAS 7:06   0/1           1         1 1  
40 GRIGONIS, MARIUS 22:24 9 2/5 1/2 2/2   1 1 3   3   1 2 2 5
92 ULANOVAS, EDGARAS 23:55 5 2/3   1/2 1 3 4   1 3     3 3 5
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 58 20/43 3/11 9/12 8 20 28 13 7 14 0 5 16 13 50
        46.5% 27.3% 75%
Head coach: JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
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 16:04 9 3/4 1/2   1 1 2 4 1 2     1 1 12
1 BEAUBOIS, RODRIGUE 15:39 12 3/5 2/6     4 4 3 1 3       1 12
4 BALBAY, DOGUS 24:11 6   2/2   3 2 5 4 2   1       18
6 BIRSEN, METECAN 1:17                              
12 MOTUM, BROCK 4:00   0/1           1     2   1   1
15 SANLI, SERTAC 1:17                              
18 MOERMAN, ADRIEN 34:12 23 5/8 4/9 1/1 1 5 6     1 1   2 4 23
21 PLEISS, TIBOR 12:14 2 1/2 0/1     2 2 1 1 1     1 3 5
22 MICIC, VASILIJE 27:30 5 1/4 1/3 0/1   2 2 2   2     2 1  
23 ANDERSON, JAMES 13:10   0/1 0/1   1   1 1 1 1     1   -1
42 DUNSTON, BRYANT 26:30 13 6/8   1/2   3 3   3 3 1   3 4 15
44 SIMON, KRUNOSLAV 23:56 9 1/1 1/2 4/4 1 3 4 4   1     2 2 15
Team           4   4               4
Totals 200:00 79 20/34 11/26 6/8 11 22 33 20 9 14 5 0 13 16 104
        58.8% 42.3% 75%
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN

Head Coaches

JASIKEVICIUS, SARUNAS
Zalgiris Kaunas
"Congratulations to Efes. Efes played a much smarter game today. Punished us with a lot of details. Was a better team on the floor. Pretty much that's it."
ATAMAN, ERGIN
Anadolu Efes Istanbul

"Tonight the main thing was that we didn't spend our energy to play aggressive on offense, to play a running game like we do at home, like the mistake in our last games in Moscow and Barcelona. We spent our energy on defense, in rebounds and on offense we controlled the game. We never went to attack early in fast break or transition offense. we tried to put the game on five-on-five offense. We took the rhythm of the game, lowered the score. That's what we like. My players shared the ball on offense and did a good job on defense."

"The details for tonight are that we played more aggressive on defense. We trapped, especially the pick-and-roll offense of Nate Wolters, of Grigonis, and we moved more, Actually, we didn't use so much this aggressive trapping defense, we use more protection with five [players], but tonight we changed and mentally we prepared for this. In the first game in Istanbul [against Zalgiris] we tried to play a fast break game, an aggressive game, and I understand this is the game that Zalgiris usually plays and playing it on the road against 15,000 people would give control of the game. We used more tonight defensive players, like Dogus Balbay, we gave him a lot of minutes and this was the key."

Players

WOLTERS, NATE
Zalgiris Kaunas
"We just didn't play well at all, had no rhythm offensively and defensively made some mistakes. It was a tough game. I thought we just didn't execute very well. We scored only 58 points; that's not going to win any games. We're in a funk right now and we need to figure out a way to get back on track and it's nice that we play on Thursday. We're in a desperate time right now and we need every win we can get. This is a really important time for us and we're not playing very well."
DUNSTON, BRYANT
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"We talked about it before the game; it's really hard to play in this gym. We wanted to give our energy on the defensive end. The last couple of games we played, we got involved in shootouts. Today coach stressed slowing the game down a little bit and using most of our energy on defense and I think we did a great job of that today. We tried to play more physical on defense and it shows in the score. Luckily, [Brandon] Davies got in some foul trouble early on and we could exploit that on the switches, move the ball inside and then pass it out. So it was good for us."
MOERMAN, ADRIEN
Anadolu Efes Istanbul
"It is not easy to win at Zalgiris. I think we played very good at the beginning, we were aggressive on defense. In the second half, we were more aggressive, this is the way we wanted. If you want to do something in this building, you have to play that way. I think it was a very good game for the whole team, not only me. If you keep Zalgiris to 58, it is not easy at home. We watched the game against Moscow and they played very tough. Congratulations to everybody."
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