Crvena Zvezda mts Belgrade delivered a brilliant end to a solid season by downing Anadolu Efes Istanbul 93-85 in the Serbian capital. Zvezda finished with a 12-16 record, while Efes drops to 16-12 and can finish fifth or sixth - the latter if Maccabi beats Fenerbahce next week.
Kalinic powers Zvezda past Efes, 93-85
Nikola Kalinic led the winners with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists. Nate Wolters and Ognjen Dobric each added 15 points, Luka Mitrovic had 11 while Dejan Davidovac got 10 for Zvezda. Shane Larkin led Efes with 16 points. Bryant Dunston added 14, Chris Singleton 13 and James Anderson 12. Larkin and Elijah Bryant stepped up early, and Dunston gave Efes a 21-29 lead at the end of the first quarter. Austin Hollins and Wolters allowed Zvezda to tie the game, 40-40, at halftime. Dobric and Davidovac allowed the hosts get a 65-59 lead late in the third quarter. Dunston gave Efes its last lead, 81-82, before Kalinic and Wolters fueled a final 10-3 run to give Zvezda the win.
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Larkin got Efes going with an off-balance basket and Anderson added a layup, but Stefan Lazarevic soon gave Zvezda its first lead, 5-4. Adrien Moerman hit a jump hook and Larkin struck from downtown in a 0-7 run that put Efes in charge, 5-11. Wolters and Moerman exchanged three-pointers and Krunoslav Simon buried a couple of jumpers for a 10-18 Efes margin. Dunston erased Kalinic's layup with a one-handed dunk, Dobric buried a floater but Bryant followed a triple with a close basket to make it a double-digit game, 16-27. Davidovac struck from beyond the arc and Hollins added a coast-to-coast layup, bringing Zvezda within 21-29 after 10 minutes.
Singleton bettered Aaron White's dunk with a three-pointer early in the second quarter. Hollins hit a jump hook and Dobric bettered Filip Petrusev's fastbreak slam with a three-pointer. Hollins scored off a steal to make Efes call timeout at 30-34. White took over with a layup in transition and Dobric copied him to tie it at 34-34. Nikola Ivanovic bettered Simon's jumper with a three-point play that completed Zvezda's comeback, 37-36. Simon kept pacing Efes with a jump hook and Tibor Pleiss added a jumper for a 37-40 score, but Wolters netted again to fix the halftime score at 40-40.
Mitrovic and Wolters fueled a 6-0 run that made Efes call timeout, 46-40, right after the break. Anderson rescued Efes with a layup-and-one and erased Larazevic's triple with his own shot from beyond the arc. Larkin scored in penetration, Dobric answered from the arc and Dunston hit a fallaway jumper for a 52-49 Efes deficit. But Wolters hit a close shot, Kalinic followed a three-point play with a layup and Dobric's uncontested basket made it a double-digit game, 61-51. Anderson buried another triple, Moerman added a fastbreak layup and Singleton a three-point play to give Efes hope at 61-59. Davidovac scored twice around the basket but Larkin beat the third-quarter buzzer with a wild triple to keep Efes within 65-62.
Bryant and Pleiss scored early in the fourth, giving Efes a 65-66 edge. Singleton dunked to cap a 0-9 Efes run, before Davidovac struck from downtown to tie it, 68-68. Wolters buried a floater that Singleton bettered with a bomb from beyond the arc. White stepped up to put Zvezda back ahead, 74-73, but Dunston hit a turnaround jumper and Larkin added a triple in a 0-7 run that made the hosts call timeout at 74-80. Dobric answered from downtown, Mitrovic bettered Dunston's jumper with a three-point play, and Mitrovic tied the game with a layup, 82-82, with 3 minutes left. Larkin hit free throws, Wolters matched them with a floater and Kalinic's dunk-and-one gave Zvezda the lead for good, 87-84. Wolters scored in penetration and Kalinic added a driving layup to seal the outcome down the stretch.