After three consecutive trips, the Roca Team, which scored its fifth Euroleague victory this season in Turkey on Friday November 8, will play its next European match in the Principality, against Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday, before traveling to the country. Basque to face Vitoria two days later.
The score (69-81), largely in favor of the Monegasques, does not fully reflect the nature of a match which seemed to elude them for a long time. After a first quarter led at a high pace, Monaco was only one point behind (22-23).
But then things took a turn for the worse. Efes, more skilful at long distance (8/16 at the break), gradually increased its lead, which was five lengths at half-time (41-36) thanks to a final prize-winning basket from its winger Derek Willis. This lead increased to +7 at the end of the third quarter (59-52), after peaking at +10 (58-48).
Papagiannis on fire in the fourth quarter
We didn't give much credit to the Rock players at the time, as they were so clumsy and only played well in flashes. One figure explains the offensive failure of the Monegasques at that time: after having scored 22 points in the first quarter, they only scored 30 in the next two.
But the Roca Team suddenly woke up. In a completely crazy last quarter, she inflicted a scathing 29-10 on Efes, spearheaded by her Greek interior Georgios Papagiannis, top scorer of the match (15 points) and her trigger Mike James suddenly found, who scored half of his 12 points in this last period alone.
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Playing in front of your audience is definitely not successful at Efes Istanbul: the 2022 European champion conceded his third defeat in four matches in his home venue on Friday.
