By Aris Barkas
There was a party in Tel Aviv and as usual Maccabi was celebrating. The semifinals of Adriatic League Final Four proved to have few thrills and a favorite that seems ready to add one more title in its impressive history.
Maccabi Tel Aviv didn’t have any problem against Buducnost (82-60). Lior Eliyahu with 18 points was the top scorer of the winners, who would probably love to be in the same position in the Euroleague Final Four, but now they have to settle for what they can win.
In the first semifinal Cedevita proved to be in top form, despite the absence of injured star Matjaz Smodis. The team from Zagreb beat Partizan 68-56 and stop the Serbians’ streak. From the 2004-05 season until last year Partizan was always playing in the Adriatic League Final, but this time nothing was clicking for them.
Cedevita – Partizan mt:s 68-56
CEDEVITA: Draper 8, Opacak 5, Vukusic 5, Bagaric, Bilan 15, Princ, Owens 18, Warren 4, Car 10, Bazdaric 3
PARTIZAN: Kecman 7, Raduljica 15, Lucic 8, Milosavljevic 8, Katic 2, Bozic 3, Cakarevic, James 4, Macvan 6, Andusic 3
Maccabi T.A. – Buducnost 82-60
MACCABI: Papaloukas 6, Hendrix 6, Smith 9 Blu 13 (3/4 3 p.), Eliyahu 18, Pnini 3, Burstein 5, Ohayon 2, James 3, Schortsanitis, Langford 17
BUDUCNOST: Mihailovic 8, M. Popovic, Milosevic 7, Krstovic 7, Vitkovac 11, Dubljevic 17, A. Popovic 9, Ivanovic, Anderson 1, Bouldin