Ward hit a jumper, than Yakuba Ouattara and Jantunen each added a three-pointer to give Paris an early 2-10 advantage. Ward capped a 0-9 run with his second bomb from downtown, then Oturu banked in a close shot for Efes. Malcolm took over with a fast-break dunk, Beaubois found his first points and Oturu soon brought Efes within 10-15. Paris’s Nadir Hifi and Efes’s Rolands Smits each joined the three-point shootout, before Poirier dunked and Bryant’s driving layup got Efes as close as 17-18. Erkan Yilmaz bettered Hayes’s layup with a triple, then Shorts restored a 20-22 Paris lead after 10 minutes.
Ward scored around the basket and Shorts’s three-point play gave Paris fresh air at 20-27. Bryant beat the shot clock with a rainbow triple that Derek Willis followed with back-to-back layups to make it 27-29. Shorts answered from beyond the arc and Malcolm added a driving layup to extend the lead. Thompson stepped up with a fast-break layup and followed Poirier’s floater with a three-point play to put Efes ahead, 35-34. Malcolm scored again and Bandja Sy buried a three-pointer for a 35-39 Paris lead. After Beaubois and Leopold Cavaliere exchanged baskets, Oturu scored in penetration. Shorts’s jumper fixed the halftime score at 39-43.
