By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv kicked off the season with an 80-73 victory against visiting ALBA Berlin, with familiar and new faces setting up the mood from the second period onwards.
The Israeli team overcame a 10-point deficit in the first period (19-29) and never looked back, as Angelo Caloiaro, Chris Jones and Othello Hunter scored in double digits to keep their team on the right track. Caloiaro was Maccabi‘s leading scorer with 18 points.
Jones and Hunter tapped 12 points each, while the latter now is two boards short from reaching the 1,000 milestone in the competition.
“I really just came out and played basketball. My teammates and coaches made it easy for me to be comfortable out there. I am playing the game that I love and I had a great time, played hard and we got the win. [I can contribute] by just going out there playing hard, having fun with my teammates, being aggressive, playmaking, and hopefully having wins”, said Maccabi newcomer Jones.
Ante Zizic tapped six points in 15 minutes in his EuroLeague return for the first time since the 2016-17 season when he last played with Darussafaka.
ALBA’s dynamic presence in the first period didn’t translate into the rest of the game, despite a huge effort by Marcus Eriksson who scored a team-high performance with 18 points.
Simone Fontecchio and Peyton Siva pushed Aito Garcia Reneses’ squad in the first half and finished the game with 17 and 10 points each.
Giannis Sfairopoulos highlighted the fact that the team needs to improve through practice and time, following the many ups and down during the game despite the victory.
“For sure we need the improvement, for sure we need to put more players in the rotations. I expect that through practices everybody will understand the tactics, understand what they have to do, and we will play much better”, he said post-game.
Photo: EuroLeague