An astonishing 46-16 second half saw Anadolu Efes keep their Euroleague winning streak going after an impressive 76-64 road win over Caja Laboral.
The Istanbul side fought back from a 48-30 half-time deficit as they used a 12-0 run in the third and an 11-0 run in the fourth to claw their way back as the Spaniards looked shellshocked.
“We saw a very strange game tonight,” Anadolu Efes coach Oktay Mahmuti said. “We committed a lot mistakes in the first half, we had 13 turnovers and that prevented us from getting in the right rhythm.
“We managed to react in the second half, we tried to put much more pressure on them and we succeed. We forced them to take difficult shots and that gave us confidence in offense. We got a very important win tonight, but this is just the fourth game and there is still a long road ahead for us.”
Jordan Farmar led the Turkish side with 18 points and six rebounds as they improve to 3-1. Carlos Cebezas led Caja Laboral with 12 points.
Cebezas said afterwards: “There were two completely different games in one. We had an awful second half, while they had a great reaction. We gradually lost intensity, and we shot too much from the three-point line and missed a lot of open shots.”
A player of the week-calibre performance from Marcelinho Huertas maintained Barcelona’s unbeaten start in this season’s Euroleague after an 85-82 win over Partizan.
The Brazilian guard poured in 24 points, nine assists and six rebounds as the Liga Endesa champions gave the young Serbians their fourth straight defeat, the result is unfair on Partizan though, who nearly came away with a shock victory.
Afterwards, Huertas was thankful to the fans for the encouragement they had shown in the latter stages.
“We are playing the right away and self-confidence have helped us to start hitting shots,” he said. “It is a pleasure to play in front of our great fans at Palau Blaugrana. We hope to give them plenty of reasons to cheer for us.”
Davis Bertans led Partizan with 17 points.
Zalgiris went 4-0 after they defeated EA7 Milano 92-87 at the Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas.
Oliver Lafayette led the Lithuanians with 17 points as they came back from 51-47 down at the break to lead 72-65 after three and never looked back.
Keith Langford led all scorers with 24.
14 points from Earl Calloway gave Unicaja Malaga a hard-fought 67-62 win over Alba Berlin as they improve to 3-1 in Group B.
This loss drops the German side to 2-2. Deon Thompson led Alba with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Fenerbahce improved to 3-1 after beating Panathinaikos 73-64 at the Ulker Arena to stay top of Group A.
Panathinaikos drop to 2-2. Bo McCalebb and Bojan Bogdanovic led the winners with 13 points each. Jonas Maciulis led Panathinaikos with 14 points. Dimitris Diamantidis added 12 and Roko Ukic had 11.
There were also home routs for Maccabi Electra, as they thrashed Asseco Prokom 93-62 and Real Madrid, as they beat Mapooro Cantu 90-66.
Ricky Hickman led a balanced scoring attack with 14 points for the Israeli champions while Jerel Blassingame led the Poles with 14 points as well.
Over in Madrid, Mirza Begic led five Real players in double-figures by grabbing 17 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
Pietro Anadori had 18 points for the Italians.
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