It was difficult, for a few moments it even seemed almost lost, but Maccabi Tel Aviv managed to make a great comeback in the hall this evening (Tuesday) and achieve an impressive 84:90 over Olympiakos. John DiBartholomeo was the one who led a great comeback from an 11-point deficit and allowed Oded Ketch to improve to 4:5 this season in the EuroLeague.
“What happened here in the fourth quarter has happened many times throughout history,” said the Maccabi Tel Aviv coach Oded Ketch at the end “The crowd pushed and we changed the momentum. We made defensive adjustments in the second half but mostly we showed a lot of heart.”
The coach of the yellows tried to explain what happened in the second half and the ability of John DiBartholomeo: “In the third quarter we got stuck in the attack, but I liked how the players reacted. DiBartholomeo proved that he is always there and ready, there is no one who deserves it more. I tried all kinds of formations, it’s easy when it Successful, we were lucky to find the right lineup.”
“I am very happy for the victory, proud of the players who found the way to fight and return to the game after a very intense week,” he said afterwards at the press conference. “We played against a very good team, which has been together for a while and knows exactly what it wants to do. I think we couldn’t have done it without the crowd. There are things that can’t be explained, energy, it happens here in the hall and today was one of those moments.”
“We are still a new team that needs to learn through video and it’s not always the easiest, many teams that don’t always play together must find a way and we’ll find it to be better and more coordinated. It’s not that easy to see through pictures or just through game plans.”
About Jarl Martin he said: “I am very happy for him. He works very hard, really wants to learn and connect and it is not easy because he has no European experience and I am very happy and I have no doubt that we will get things from him. It can help us a lot in this position.
When asked if, in his opinion, Lorenzo Brown’s worst period is over, Ketch replied: “I don’t know, and I must admit that it bothers me less. I would of course prefer him to dance the way he knows how on the field and for everything to connect with him. It’s not something I can be busy with, I have to manage the The game. I trust him. Trusting someone is not only when good things happen, I’m glad he found the way. He wants to and in his way he showed a lot of heart.”
Wade Baldwin, who led Maccabi Tel Aviv’s scoring list with 22 points, said at the end: “The crowd’s support brought us the victory. The whole team brought the victory, it was a huge game and now we look at the next game on the fifth. I believe that our defense is a very important part of our attack, we stopped and took rebounds and that allowed us to go on good passing attacks.”