Efes take down Milan, one win away from Final 4 / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: Aykut Akici/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images Credit Aykut Akici/Euroleague Basketball via Getty Images

Reigning champions Anadolu Efes Istanbultake one step forward in defending the title by defeatingAX Armani Exchange Milan on a hard battle on the court at Sinan Erdem Dome tonight. The final score was 77-65 (25-17, 17-18, 17-21, 18-9). Efes took a 2-1 series lead over Milan.

Vasilije Micic (7/8 2PT, 2/8 3PT), Tibor Pleiss (4/6 2PT, 2/4 3PT, 3/3 FT), and Shane Larkin (1/2 2PT, 4/7 3PT, 2/2 FT) led Efes with 20, 17 and 16 points respectively. No other player from Efes went over 8 points.

Devon Hall was the leading scorer for Milan, finishing with 16 points (2/3 2PT, 3/6 3PT, 3/3 FT), 5 assists, 3 rebounds, and 22 PIR.

Hall nailed a 3-pointer and gave visitors the lead (63-61) with 5:09 to remaining, extending the Italians' positive momentum. Meanwhile, Pleiss made a dunk and a free throw, Larkin and Micic added back-to-back triples, which let Efes retook the game control in their hands (72-63) with 2:00 to go. Nevertheless, Larkin drained one more 3-pointer to seal the deal for reigning champs.

Visitors started the game better and had an early slim lead (11-7). Sergio Rodriguez, who was questionable (ankle) before the game, managed to score 4 quick points in that stint.

Though, inspired by Micic, Pleiss and Bryant Dunston’s buckets, Efes organized a massive 14-0 run and changed the trend of the first period (21-11).

Milan couldn’t score a single point for almost five minutes until Jerian Grant terminated the silence with back-to-back 3-pointers (17-23).

Even though Armani came within 3 points (26-29) at the start of the second quarter, the Turkish giants initiated a 13-2 run and got back the double-digit advantage (42-28). Hall and Grant's two-pointers slightly corrected the situation closing the half with their own 7-0 run (35-42).

The situation changed in the second half. In the third period, Armani reacted and after being down by 10 points (37-47), they started to find some baskets from deep with Rodriguez and Grant, finishing the period only down by 3 (56-59).

Efes played without Rodrigue Beaubois and Krunoslav Simon tonight. While Milan were forced to play without Nicolo Melli, Malcolm Delaney, Trey Kell and Dinos Mitoglou.

Anadolu Efes: Vasilije Micic 20 (5 AST), Tibor Pleiss 17 (5 REB), Shane Larkin 16 (5 AST, 4 REB), Adrien Moerman 8 (5 REB).

Armani Exchange: Devon Hall 16 (5 AST, 3 REB, 22 PIR), Jerian Grant 11, Shavon Shields 9 (6 REB, 4 STL), Sergio Rodriguez 9, Ben Bentil 8.

Highlights

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