On-the-ropes Efes blows past Milan, 89-69

Two-time defending champion Anadolu Efes Istanbul kept alive its playoff chances by running past visiting EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 89-69 on Tuesday night at Sinan Erdem Dome. The victory not only got Efes back on the winning track and to a 15-16 record with three regular season games remaining, but also completed an important sweep of Milan. Efes took the lead for good with a run late in the first quarter, made it a double-digit affair in the second, and led by as many as 23 points in the third. Milan, which entered this game having won eight of its last nine games, never got closer than 13 points, dropping to a 14-17 record.
Shane Larkin led five double-digit Efes scorers by downing 11 of his 18 points in the second quarter, while Will Clyburn had 11 of his 16 points in the first and finished with a career-high 5 steals. Vasilije Micic scored 15, while Rodrigue Beaubois and Elijah Bryant had 12 apiece. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot had a game-high 19 points for Milan, and Johannes Voigtmann netted 12.
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The teams traded blows with eight early lead changes as Voigtmann netted 3 triples and Shavon Shields another to put Milan up 12-14. Efes had good energy from the start before a pair of block by Beaubois led to Clyburn making back-to-back three-pointers in an 8-0 run to take a 22-16 lead after 10 minutes. Brandon Davies scored a pair of tough baskets for Milan early in the second, but Larkin got going with 3 three-pointers followed by a corner triple from Bryant at 38-27. Shabazz Napier hit from deep late in the second quarter for his first points, but a corner triple from Bryant opened a 47-32 halftime lead for Efes.
A three-point apiece from Napier, Voigtmann and Billy Baron gave Milan hope at the start of the third quarter, and the visitors kept Efes without a single point for more than 2 minutes. But a three-point play from Beaubois got Efes clicking, before he and Larkin buried long-range shots to boost the lead to 66-43 with 3 minutes left in the third. Luwawu-Cabarrot hit a buzzer-beating triple to end the third and his layup made it 68-53 with 8 minutes remaining. But Micic snapped a 0-8 run with a tough shot-clock-beating triple, then took the ball to the rim. His second triple restored a 20-point margin, 80-60, with 4 minutes left, and Efes cruised the rest of the way.