Maccabi spoils Nedovic’s career-high night

22/Dec/20 22:06

Maccabi held off Nemanja Nedovic’s career-high night to prevail over Panathinaikos

By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net

Another big-time performance by Nemanja Nedovic was overshadowed as Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv turned last week’s late triumph into a streak after rising to the occasion against Panathinaikos OPAP Athens and grabbed a 89-81 victory in Round 16 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.

Nedovic scored a career-high of 39 points along with 6 assists and paced the Greens into their second-half comeback, though his efforts fell short despite scoring nearly half of his team’s points. With the deficit as low as four points by the midpoint of the fourth quarter, Dragan Bender stepped up for the hosts and connected with Scottie Wilbekin twice to restore a short lead for Maccabi.

“I am proud of how we fought in the end. We faced a player who was very hot, it was very difficult to stop him. We changed matchups, we changed defenses on him. Whatever we tried to do, he was very hot and you can see that although we stopped all the other players they had, he created a lot of problems for us. I am proud that we won the game and of course that we fought till the end. We didn’t panic. I think we controlled the game. We had a great first half. The second half, it was normal for them to react. But I think the win is very important”, said Sfairopoulos after the game.

Wilbekin led all scorers for Giannis Sfairopoulos’ squad with 22 points and a great contribution in the fourth period. Othello Hunter and Elijah Bryant left the court with 13 points each.

Ben Bentil tapped 9 points for the visitors with a key contribution as well towards the end, even though Panathinaikos couldn’t complete its comeback and will leave Tel Aviv with a 5-10 record.

On the other hand, Maccabi grabbed its second straight win and moves up to the standings with a 7-9 record.

Photo: EuroLeague

Tags Maccabi Panathinaikos