Brown, Dunston lift Efes to OT road win

In a thriller that needed overtime to determine the winner, Anadolu Efes Istanbul took another step towards the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs by downing Unics Kazan 92-99 in Russia on Friday. Efes improved to 13-11 in the regular season standings, recording its fourth consecutive win. Unics dropped to 7-17 and is mathematically out of chances to make it the playoffs, becoming the first eliminated team in the competition. Derrick Brown led the winners with 24 points on 8-of-12 two-point shooting. Jayson Granger added 17 points and Bryant Dunston had 16 while Thomas Heurtel dished 9 assists. Keith Langford led Unics with 23 points. Latavious Williams and Quino Colom each had 16 while Art Parakhouski had 10. Williams also pulled down 10 rebounds for a double-double. Efes dished 13 assists in the first half, limiting turnovers to just 4. Its two-point shooting percentage - 60%, 15-of-25 - allowed the guests to get a 43-49 margin at the break. Despite allowing 15 offensive rebounds, Efes kept shooting the ball well inside the arc, hitting 31-of-52 shots (59.6%). Efes also had 8 steals and 25 assists to get a valuable road win.

Parakhouski dunked to get Unics going and free throws by Langford gave his team a 4-0 lead. Brown followed a big basket with a tip-in but Pavel Antipov struck from downtown and Coty Clarke helped Unics boost its margin to 12-4. Dunston and Brown stepped up for Efes but an outstanding Langford kept Unics in charge, 18-12. A 0-7 run that Tyler Honeycutt capped with a tip-in gave the guests their first lead, 18-19. Granger struck from downtown but a reverse layup by Colom and a jumper by Williams tied it at 22-22 after 10 minutes. Williams took over with an alley-oop slam and Danilo Andjusic added 5 unanswered points for a 29-27 Unics lead. Can Maxim Mutaf and DeShaun Thomas each hit from beyond the arc and back-to-back slams by Alex Kirk allowed Efes to regain a 35-37 lead. Thomas insisted from downtown and Dunston followed a three-point play with a layup. They got help from Granger and Cedi Osman to boost Efes's margin to 43-49 at halftime.

Osman followed a triple with a fastbreak layup to make it a double-digit difference, 43-54, right after the break. A three-point play by Granger and a floater by Osman boosted Efes's lead to 46-61. Colom and Williams fueled an 8-0 run that gave Unics hope at 54-61. Kirk and Thomas stepped up for Efes, Heurtel swished a jumper and a dunk by Honeycutt restored a 61-69 Efes lead after 30 minutes. Granger scored down low and added a baseline floater as Efes regained a 63-73 advantage. Andjusic and Colom each hit a triple in a 10-0 run that Langford capped with a jumper that tied the game, 73-73, with more than 3 minutes left. Dunston took over with a layup and 3 free throws. Langford scored in penetration and Williams erased Heurtel's free throws with a one-handed alley-oop slam for a 77-80 score. Langford hit free throws to tie the game, 80-80, with 19.4 seconds left. Brown sank a jumper with 2.7 seconds to go but Langford buried an off-balance shot to send the game to overtime. Granger and Brown took over early in the extra period and free throws by Dunston made it a six-point game, 84-90. Brown followed a tough jumper with a two-handed slam that sealed the outcome, 86-94, as Unics never recovered.