Mac TA falls in Euroleague action
Hapoel Jerusalem wins second Champions League game in a row
Maccabi Tel Aviv hosted CSKA Moscow on Gameday 2 of the Euroleague at Yad Eliyahu in Tel Aviv and fell 89-86 as the yellow-and-blue remained winless in continental play.
Head Coach Neven Spahija’s side put up a valiant fight but couldn’t match the Russian’s firepower throughout the 40 minutes, as Nando de Colo scored 27 points and Kyle Hines dropped 14 points to help lead the visitor’s to the victory.
Angelo Caloiaro led Maccabi with 21 points while Michael Roll added 15 points and seven assists in the defeat.
“I want to give credit to our team for the effort and the basketball they showed,” head coach Neven Spahija commented following the game.
“We took one step forward but it wasn’t enough to beat CSKA, which is a team with a tremendous amount of quality.”
After coming off an opening day loss in Athens against Panathinaikos last week, the yellow-and-blue were again without guard Jeremy Pargo who was nursing a back injury as coach Spahija’s side looked for a standout performance from Scottie Wilbekin to match CSKA’s firepower.
CSKA’s star scorer Nando de Colo came out flying and carved up the Maccabi defense hitting his shot at will, ending the first frame with 11 points.
Michael Roll answered for the host’s with eight points including two three-pointers as the yellow-and-blue stayed close, down by three 24-21 after 10 minutes of action.
The second quarter saw both team’s big men get into the action as Maccabi’s Tarik Black showed off some scintillating slam dunks for nine points and CSKA’s Kyle Hines worked his own magic with eight points as the visitor’s took a four-point, 50-46 lead into the halftime break.
Maccabi took care of the ball in the third quarter and cut down on their 10 first-half turnovers, as Angelo Caloiaro had a monster frame dropping nine of his points to give the yellowand-blue a slim one point 68-67 advantage heading into the final 10 minutes.
However, Spahija’s squad ran out of gas late in the game and Wilbekin fouled out as de Colo, Will Clyburn, with a double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds, sliced and diced Maccabi to help CSKA take the road win.
The yellow-and-blue now head to Podgorica, Montenegro, for a Euroleague Gameday 3 date on Thursday against 0-2 Buducnost, which fell on the road to Darüssafaka on Tuesday
71-63.
Maccabi will need to pay attention to former NBA forward Earl Clark, who shoulders most of the team’s offense as they will look to avoid starting the season off 0-3 with two more road games at Olympiacos and Barcelona following the clash in Montenegro.
Second in a row
In Basketball Champions League action, Hapoel Jerusalem won their second game in a row defeating Lietkabelis from Lithuania 81-67 at the Pais Arena in the capital city.
James Feldeine scored 16 points grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists while Tamir Blatt dropped 14 points and added six helpers in the victory.
After a close first half that ended with Jerusalem nursing a two-point, 36-34 lead, the host’s took control of the contest in the third quarter outscoring Lietkabelis 22-12 in the frame thanks to terrific play by Amare Stoudemire.
The former NBA all-star pulled down 10 rebounds and blocked two shots as he finished the evening with an efficiency rating of 17 to lead the Reds.
Stoudemire said about the importance of the victory, “It felt great to be back in the mix with a beautiful atmosphere. The fans were amazing as they always are. We knew how important this game was for us and we wanted to get off to a good start in the Champions League. We’re 2-0 and feel good but we can still get better.”