By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Scottie Wilbekin scored a game-high 21 points including the game-winner with ten seconds left as Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Olympiacos Piraeus 71 – 70 at home to capture its fourth win in a row in EuroLeague and improve to 18 – 8.
Olympiacos fell to 11-15.
“Tyler [Dorsey] did a great job of drawing my man and at the end of the day, it was just an open three,” Wilbekin said to EuroLeague TV on his game-winning triple. “I am used to those. It feels great, especially since we didn’t play that great of a game. We played a good first half, the second half they came out stronger and we let our guard down a little bit. But the important thing is the win.”
Shaq McKissic dropped 14 points in his EuroLeague debut while Wade Baldwin had 13 points and five rebounds for the Nikola Milutinov-less Olympiacos. The “Reds” were up 60 – 66 with less than 90 seconds remaining and entered the final minute ahead 65 – 69 thanks to a 3-point play by McKissic. But Wilbekin and Maccabi had the final say.
Wilbekin hit 3/3 free throws after a foul by Kostas Papanikolaou near midcourt and then drained the triple for the 71 – 70 after Baldwin went 1/2 from the line. Olympiacos’ players lost the ball in the final possession, committing their 20th turnover in the match.
Olympiacos trailed by 12 at the beginning of the second half but put on some tremendous defense to shut down Maccabi’s production rates while coming back in the game. The “Reds” had a 0-12 run in the fourth quarter to lead even by seven, 55 – 62 thanks to some triples by Sasha Vezenkov (nine points).
Maccabi had previously assumed control near halftime by dominating the last stretch of the second period 14-0 after falling behind 25 – 26. Elijah Bryant had 13 points, Othello Hunter nine points plus five rebounds and Tyler Dorsey nine points for the “Yellows.”
“They fought until the end”
Maccabi coach Giannis Sfairopoulos had the best to say about his players and particularly for the way they recovered in crunch time to get the win. “I want to congratulate our players for one more win. With the way that this win came, it was more important. I think it was important that we didn’t give up. We fought until the end. We believed that we could win. And this is the reason that we won. I congratulate the players because they fought until the end. They played very good defense the last three or four minutes.”
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball