After allowing AX Armani Exchange Milan to score 32 points in the second quarter alone, Anadolu Efes Istanbul held the visitors to 27 points in the entire second half.
Telling numbers: Efes played great second-half defense
Milan played small ball in the second quarter with three guards and Luigi Datome at the ‘4’. That lineup created problems for Efes, but Coach Ergin Ataman addressed it at halftime and Efes’s defense was excellent the rest of the way.
In the second quarter, Milan made 10 of 14 two-pointers and 3 of 5 threes in erasing an early 16-4 deficit to lead 42-43 at halftime. Datome scored 12 points in the second quarter, Devon Hall had 7 and Kyle Hines 6. After that, however, Efes held Milan to 5-for-13 two-point shooting and 5-for-18 three-point shooting over the final 20 minutes.
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It did not appear that it would be enough after Milan put together a 0-14 run bridging the third and fourth quarter to once again erase a double-digit deficit and lead by 4 early in the fourth. But after Giampaolo Ricco made it 62-66 2 and a half minutes into the fourth, the Efes defense kept Milan scoreless for the next 7 minutes, during which it forced 5 turnovers, 3 missed two-pointers and 5 missed threes.