The French side grabbed its first road win since October 24, 2025
Nadir Hifi helps Paris put fourth-quarter nightmares to bed at Efes
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 20 of 38
Regular Season
Anadolu Efes IstanbulEFS
7984
Paris BasketballPBB
Overview
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For Paris Basketball, it looked as though history was about to repeat itself at the Turkcell Basketball Development Center.
Having led for much of the second and third quarters, Paris entered the fourth quarter at Anadolu Efes Istanbul clinging to a 64-65 advantage. When Jared Rhoden’s three-pointer pushed the visitors 70-72 ahead, the ghosts of fourth quarters past loomed once more.
Five points from Ercan Osmani and a pair of free throws by Saben Lee – making his EuroLeague debut for Efes – swung momentum back to the hosts, who opened up a 77-72 lead with 5:38 remaining. Once again, Paris appeared to be letting a fourth-quarter lead slip away.
This time, however, the script changed.
A Yakuba Ouattara fast-break layup and a Justin Robinson three, followed by another Robinson layup, quickly restored Paris’s advantage at 77-79. Allan Dokossi then rejected Rolands Smits at the rim, and after nearly two and a half scoreless minutes for both teams, Nadir Hifi delivered the dagger – a step-back three that made it 77-82 with 39 seconds left.
After a timeout, Lee snapped Efes’s five-minute scoring drought with a layup, but Rhoden calmly iced the game from the free-throw line to seal a 79-84 victory.
Hifi finished with 27 points – tied for the second-highest scoring output of his EuroLeague career – and will deservedly draw most of the headlines. For Paris, though, the win carried deeper significance. Not only did it halt a recurring pattern of fourth-quarter collapses, it also snapped a six-game road losing streak. Francesco Tabellini’s side had not won away from home since October 24, when it beat Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade 83-101 in Round 6.
“I think it was a very important win for us,” Tabellini said afterward. “There was a lot on the table. The result is a consequence of the discipline and mental fortitude of my players, because too many times this season we’ve blown leads.
“It was a small lead, but it felt like another fourth quarter was slipping away. Instead, they showed great resilience, great discipline. They deserved it. The way we prepared, the way we kept bouncing back – they did a tremendous job, and I’m really happy for them.”
Alongside Hifi’s scoring, Rhoden also stood out in his return after missing Round 19. The guard said the time away helped him approach the closing moments with a clearer mindset.
“I had some time off to think about how we can close games and stay resilient,” Rhoden told EuroLeague TV. “I think we executed pretty well. We have to keep staying with it, staying resilient, and hopefully we can build on this win and find some consistency.”
Whether the victory proves to be a turning point remains to be seen, but Tabellini is confident Paris will take valuable lessons from the night in Istanbul.
“Our purpose is to play collective basketball,” he said. “It doesn’t come immediately. The team is new, the system is new – it takes time. The willingness to play together has always been there, but under pressure it hasn’t always shown. That’s part of the process. Now we need to speed that process up, and tonight was an important step.”
Efes, meanwhile, continues to search for consistency. Pablo Laso knew the challenge he was taking on, but after an impressive road win at Zalgiris Kaunas in his debut, the Turkish side has now dropped four straight games. Efes will look to reset later in the double-round week when it travels to face an EA7 Emporio Armani Milan team riding high after a win over Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens on Tuesday night.
