The former Efes boss was hoping to steer Panathinaikos to victory in his homecoming, but the American center had other plans.
Tyrique Jones ruined Coach Ataman's homecoming game
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Regular Season
Round 10 of 34
Group Regular Season
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It was a special night for Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens head coach Ergin Ataman, who returned to Sinan Erdem Sports Hall to face Anadolu Efes Istanbul for the first time since leaving the team. It was also his 400th EuroLeague game since the competition was founded in 2000. He joined Zeljko Obradovic and Ettore Messina in this select club.
Coach Ataman was warmly received by the Efes fans. More than half of his 400 EuroLeague games, 222 to be precise, were on the Efes bench over parts of eight seasons. He led the team to EuroLeague titles in 2021 and 2022, as well as to the 2019 EuroLeague Championship Game.
Efes came into this game without key players Ante Zizic, Rodrigue Beaubois, Will Clyburn, Tibor Pleiss and Derek Willis. But luckily for head coach Erdem Can, he had Tyrique Jones, who had a career night and led Efes to a hard-fought 71-68 victory.
Tyrique Jones dominated for Efes
Jones set the tone early with a three-point play on his team's first possession and soon added a jump hook and dunk to quickly build a 12-4 lead. Predictably, Panathinaikos came back and took a 59-62 lead with over 4 minutes before the end. What's more, Efes had lost a sixth player, forward Erkan Yilmaz, due to injury.
Jones was far from done as he gave Efes a 63-62 lead with a tip-in. When Jerian Grant hit a three-pointer, Jones grabbed 2 offensive rebounds at the other end, drew a foul and made both of the resulting free-throw attempts to tie it at 65-65. After Kendrick Nunn buried a three-pointer, Jones scored again around the basket and got help from Shane Larkin to put Efes back ahead, 70-68.
The game came down to the last shot, but Dinos Mitoglou missed from downtown at the buzzer. When the dust settled, Jones had set new career highs in points (21), rebounds (13), steals (4), fouls drawn (5) and PIR (36). His 8 offensive rebounds were a new EuroLeague season high and also tied for second place in club history, trailing only Loren Woods, who pulled down 10 offensive boards against Le Mans on January 10, 2008.
"Like I said at halftime, we just needed to come out with the same aggressiveness, and it was next man up. We counted on everybody who played tonight," Jones said after the game. "Fortunately, I'm here. It's just credit to my teammates and all glory to God. It's just my will to win. We wanted this game. We're protecting home court. And we're going to continue to try to protect home court every time we step in front of this house."
An increased role for Tyrique Jones
Jones was the 2022-23 BKT EuroCup's fifth-best rebounder with 8.0 boards per game. With less playing time and an adjustment to a new level of competition, Jones's rebounding average dropped to 2.7 rebounds in his first 10 EuroLeague games. Since Zizic picked up an injury, however, Jones is averaging over 31 minutes per night and 11.5 rebounds per game.
He will have the chance to test his rebounding skills against Johannes Thiemann and Khalifa Koumadje next, as Efes plays against ALBA Berlin at Mercedes-Benz Arena, home of the 2024 Final Four, in a battle of Round 12 winners on Thursday night. As for Coach Ataman, his 401st EuroLeague game will be at home against the defending champions, Real Madrid.