First-place Reds improve to 16-6 • Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated in Greece • Jerusalem, Holon also lose Israeli basketball teams have had a tough week thus far in European competition as only one, Hapoel Tel Aviv, was able to record a win in their respective leagues. Hapoel Tel Aviv slipped by Anadolu EFES 71-66 in a hard-fought battle that saw the Reds mount a second-half comeback keyed by Chris Jones to take the victory.
First-place Reds improve to 16-6 • Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated in Greece • Jerusalem, Holon also lose
Israeli basketball teams have had a tough week thus far in European competition as only one, Hapoel Tel Aviv, was able to record a win in their respective leagues.
Hapoel Tel Aviv slipped by Anadolu EFES 71-66 in a hard-fought battle that saw the Reds mount a second-half comeback keyed by Chris Jones to take the victory. With the win, Dimitrios Itoudis’s team moved to 16-6, good for first place in the Euroleague standings as the Reds will now prepare for their next matchup against Partizan Belgrade on Friday night in a game that will take place in Munich due to the Serbian’s arena being booked with another international competition.
PJ Dozier, Isaia Cordinier and Saben Lee helped EFES jump out to a 19-14 lead after the opening frame. Dozier and Lee kept filling the basket, Jones responded but the visitors went into halftime up 43-33.
Elijah Bryant, Collin Malcolm and Ish Wainright all cut into the lead, while Dan Oturu scored as well but points from Dozier and Lee kept Pablo Laso’s team in front 53-50 after 30 minutes of play. Jones, Malcolm and Wainright scored to give Itoudis’s team the lead, and Ercan Osmani answered back, but a clutch 3-pointer by Jones down the stretch closed out the victory for the Reds.
Jones scored 16 points, Wainright added 13 points and Bryant put in 12 points in the win while Lee scored 20 points, Dozier put in 15 points and Osmani scored 10 points in the loss.
Jones, the game’s MVP, reflected on the win
“We believed in each other and I made a tough shot at the end, it went through and I am happy we won. The first half we were horrible defensively as a team and individually. We have to be better but we will learn from this and move forward. It was an ugly win, but at the end we want to be at the top of the standings and in order for that to happen you need to win these types of games.”
Bryant also spoke about the win and looked ahead to the second game in the double week.
“We did a good job on defense and Chris Jones organized us and led us to help us get the win. We have to share the ball and trust each more and be able to run. Partizan Belgrade is a talented team, but we will take it one day at a time.”
Over in Greece, Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Olympiacos 100-93 as former Euroleague MVP Sasha Vezenkov proved to be unstoppable for the hosts to take the victory.
The yellow-and-blue jumped out to an early lead thanks to Jimmy Clark and Roman Sorkin, however Vezenkov began to heat up while Evan Fournier also scored at will to grab a 58-34 lead at halftime as the hosts cruised to the win.
The loss drops Maccabi’s record to 9-14 with the back end of the Greek double week coming up on Thursday night when Oded Katash’s squad welcomes Panathinaikos to Yad Eliyahu.
Sorkin scored 21 points, Jeff Dowtin scored 15 points while Jaylen Hoard and Oshae Brissett both scored 11 points in the loss. Vezenkov scored 28 points, Nikola Milutinov added 13 points, Fournier put in 12 points and Thomas Walkup scored 10 points in the win.
Katash spoke about the defeat
“For three quarters we did a good job and executed our game plan against a very talented team. We lost our minds on both ends of the court and that caused us to lose the game during those 10 minutes in the second quarter. We need to learn from this in order to compete at this level.”
“We showed character in the second half, but as I said, we need to gain confidence so we can play the right way, like we did in the other three quarters. On the other hand, when things don’t go our way, we need to learn not to suffer from it, and that comes with experience,” the bench boss concluded.
Clark spoke about the loss
“We got off to a decent start but we didn’t really keep the run that we wanted to at the end of the first half and going into the second half. We put up a good fight in the second half and that really helped us come back into the game and cut down their lead. Credit to the team and coaching staff for keeping us in the game. I think that if we had the fight that we had in the second half in the second quarter I think we would have been in a better position than we were.”
Maccabi’s Marcio Santos added: “We had three good quarters, but in order to get a win versus a team like Olympiacos you need to have four. The positive side was that we didn’t give up, we were fighting for the game till the last minute.”
Also, Hapoel Jerusalem came up short against Rytas Batchesehir 94-82 as its 11-game EuroCup winning streak was snapped and its record dropped to 12-3 in Group A but remained in first place.
Justin Smith and Khadeen Carrington began the game with points aplenty for Jerusalem, while Mateusz Ponitka and Malachi Flynn helped knot the game up at 49-49 at halftime. Caleb Homesley scored five straight points and Flynn also put in points to take a 70-58 lead after 30 minutes.
Carrington and Jared Harper tried to cut into the gap but Hale Hunter, Tyler Cavanaugh along with Flynn scored to capture the victory. Carrington scored 25 points, Smith added 15 points and Harper scored 11 points in the loss. Flynn scored 22 points, Homesley put in 16 points as Ponitka and Cavanaugh each scored 11 points in the victory.
Jerusalem coach Yonatan Alon talked about the loss.
“We didn’t make shots and we fell into their aggressiveness, we gave them some open looks that shouldn’t happen and we played against a very good team. Now we have to bounce back.”
Hapoel Holon was bested by Rytas 106-81 as the Purples opened up the Champions League Round of 16 on the wrong foot.
Jordan Caroline, Jerrick Harding and Kay Bruhnke scored for Rytas while Xavier Munford and Derrick Walton answered for Hapoel Holon, but the Lithuanians took a 45-33 at halftime.
Jordan Walker, Arturas Gudaitis and Simonas Lukosius poured in the points, while Walton and Munford tried to keep the Purples close, but Rytas rolled to the 25-point win.
Munford scored 23 points and Walton added 15 points in the loss while Walker scored 20 points Gudaitis put in 14 points as Harding and Caroline each scored 13 points in the win.
Holon coach Yoav Shamir shared his thoughts on the game.
“A lot of thanks to the fans that traveled from Israel with us, we appreciate it. The problem we had was not finding our rhythm and credit to Ryutas for that. We are in the midst of a very busy schedule but we are looking forward to continuing the Round of 16 in the BClL as we have plans moving forward and getting better.”
Munford discussed the clash
“It was a tough game for us but a good test. Rytas is a good team and they played very physical and very hard and they got us. But we are looking forward to getting better and moving on.”
See more Israeli sports coverage at www.sportsrabbi.com/en
Category: General Sports
