The winners, however, may have lost Shane Larkin to injury
Efes piles more misery on Milan with 84-96 road win
Anadolu Efes Istanbul gained a second straight win and piled more misery on struggling EA7 Emporio Armani Milan by holding on for a road victory, 84-96, on Thursday. Efes improves to 3-2, while Milan drops to 1-4.
Efes raced into an early 8-point lead and never looked back, extending the margin beyond 20 points before halftime. Milan improved drastically after the break and got within 4 points with a 22-5 charge, but the visitors found fresh resolve to pull away again in the fourth.
Efes, which lost Shane Larkin to injury, was led by Elijah Bryant with 19 points. Darius Thompson provided 17 points and 7 assists, with Ercan Osmani, Jordan Nwora and Rolands Smits all scoring 11. Nikola Mirotic shined with 29 points for Milan, while Zach LeDay recorded 16 points and 7 rebounds.
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Mirotic opened the scoring with a layup, but a triple from Osmani propelled Efes on a 0-10 run, capped by a deep strike from Bryant, for the early lead. Mirotic’s long two and a fast-break slam from Leandro Bolmaro briefly lifted Milan, but Osmani scored twice before Thompson hit a triple and threw down an alley-oop, and Bryant netted a jumper for an 11-23 lead after ten minutes.
Larkin’s layup and a three-point play from Smits stretched the lead further early in the second, and Dan Oturu’s put-back made it 13-30. Guglielmo Caruso and Stefano Tonut stopped the bleeding, but Oturu threw down a pair of big slams and Rodrigue Beaubois sank a three for 17-37. Beaubois again connected from deep, before Bryant and Osmani scored inside to make it 25-46 at the break.
Mirotic and Shavon Shields hit three-pointers early in the third, but Bryant answered with two scores. LeDay further reduced the gap with 5 straight points, 40-53, as Larkin limped off with an ankle injury. Bryant settled Efes with another three, but Mirotic and Shields brought it back to a single-digit margin, 47-56. LeDay’s slam and one and a Shields transition bucket made it even closer, 52-56, before Smits answered from long-range and Thompson added a three-point play. Beaubois and Armoni Brooks traded triples, and it was 59-66 after three quarters.
Smits’s jumper was bettered by Diego Flaccadori’s triple early in the final period before Thompson made it 62-71 with another deep strike. Nwora’s inside score and Vincent Poirier’s three-point play gave Efes another double-digit margin with 6 minutes left before Smits struck from beyond the arc. A pair of Mirotic three-pointers and another from LeDay gave Milan hope, but Nwora netted from both long-range and at the basket for a 74-88 lead, which proved decisive.