Efes eyes third straight win against Panathinaikos


As Anadolu Efes recorded a 72-92 road victory over Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv on Tuesday, it will host Panathinaikos Superfoods today in Round 8 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

After losing its first five games to start the season, Efes has picked up its second consecutive road win to improve to 2-5, while Maccabi dropped to 4-3.

As for the game on Tuesday, Efes's Errick McCollum nailed eight 3-pointers in one of the best scoring displays by a visiting player in Tel Aviv history.

McCollum finished with 31 points on 8-of-11 3-point shooting, which was the best performance by a player at Menora Mivtachim Arena since Carlos Cabezas scored 31 for Unicaja Malaga in an overtime game in 2006.

Vladimir Stimac posted 15 points and 13 rebounds to help Efes dominate the boards 46-30.

Meanwhile, Efes's rival Panathinaikos has won consecutive games for the first time this season after routing Khimki Moscow Region 93-65 on Tuesday.

The victory improved the Greens record to 4-3, while Khimki, which had entered Round 7 tied for first place, slipped to 5-2.

Marcus Denmon's long-range shooting and iron-fisted defense gave the home team an early double-digit lead which never looked likely to be troubled, and Denmon eventually finished with 24 points of 7-of-9 three-point shooting, while Nick Calathes had a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists.

Panathinaikos's total of 17 triples was the third-most in club history and the most made by any team since March 2015.

Baskonia also trounced Real Madrid 105-75 on Tuesday at Fernando Buesa Arena. The victory was Baskonia's second in its last three games after a 0-4 start, which took the team's record to 2-5.

For Madrid, the loss was its third in a row and the 30-point difference was the largest margin of defeat for Los Blancos in competition history.

Baskonia took control with a 19-0 run to lead 27-5 after six and a half minutes and coasted the rest of the way. Madrid never got closer than 14 after that and the difference peaked at 33 in the fourth quarter. Rodrigue Beaubois scored 15 points to lead the winners, for which every player made a basket.