Maccabi Tel Aviv hopes to continue tonight (Thursday) its successful opening of the season and at this time hosts Baskonia as part of the sixth round in the Euroleague. The yellows showed up for the game with an impressive record of 1:4 in their search for their first away win of the season at the factory. Darren Hilliard, who recovered from a knee injury that disabled him last month, returned to the squad, from which Jarel Martin was absent due to a knee injury he suffered in the game against Hapoel Holon. The opponent, who started the cycle in seventh place with a record of 2:3, relies on a talented and explosive front line of Marcus Howard, Dario Thompson and Pieria Henry, and hopes to break a streak of five losses to Maccabi Tel Aviv. Tonight’s game will be especially special for Wade Baldwin, who meets the team he played with last year.
the progress of the game
Quarter 1: Alex Poithers got on the board first with his second attempt under the basket after being blocked, the host made it 2:5 after a hard three-pointer by Dalton Homes from the corner. Maccabi continued to get its points in the paint courtesy of Josh Nibo and Lorenzo Brown, but the host did not struggle on the offensive side and went up to 6:14. Oded Ketch called a timeout trailing by nine, the Yellows came back with a 3-pointer by Brown that reduced the score to 21:15.
Mike Kotsar continued his good start with a basket and a foul that was squeezed by Murphy Manko, the hot Marcus Howard came off the bench and shot a three-pointer – 15:27 local. The high tempo continued with a 3-pointer by Rokas Guidraitis, Jaylen Adams responded with his own shot from outside the arc, but Howard ended the host’s dream quarter with another 3-pointer – 20:35 to Baskonia.
Quarter 2: The unstoppable Howard continued to pound the yellows and established a record difference of 21 points with 22:43. With the departure of the hot guard, Maccabi returned to show signs of life, and two triples by Brown reduced the score to 43:30.
The Yellows continued to bite into the gap when Baldwin lifted Eli Hope to Nivo who floated and sank, but Basconia came back to snipe from the outside and went up to 38:57. Nivo and Poithers narrowed, but Basconia returned to the record difference on the way to 42:63 at the break.
Quarter 3: Nivo continued to be the bright spot for the yellows with another basket in the paint, a three-pointer by Bonzi Colson narrowed it to 65:47, but Basconia returned to a new record difference – 49:75. After scoring only three in the first half, Wade Baldwin scored the next seven points of the yellows against his ex and the minor to 77:57.
The Basques called a timeout, and came back from it well with four consecutive points by Kutsar. Vania Marinkovic scored three, Coulson responded and Matt Costello closed the quarter with an unimaginable number of points for the host. After 30 minutes – 67:90 to Baskonia.
Quarter 4: Basconia continued from where it left off, Pieria Henry established a new record difference of 28 points – 67:95.
In the next round, the seventh in the Euroleague, Maccabi Tel Aviv will return to Eliyahu for another game against a Spanish opponent – this time Barcelona of Sharonas Jasikvicius.