By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona got the 86-79 win in Tel Aviv after dominating the last period and keeping Maccabi Playtika at a distance.
Nicolas Laprovittola with 19 points was once again the top scorer of Barcelona, but Cory Higgins with 15 points was the key to the win, while Mike Tobey with 14 points and Alex Abrines with 13 made crucial contributions.
“I think we really improved our defense [in the second half]. Especially our one-on-one game. I think we were really solid in rebounding during the whole game. In offense, it gave us a lot of second chances to score and I think we got the confidence from there,” said Tomas Satoransky with nine points, six rebounds, six assists, and two steals to his name.
“I think we just were more aggressive; we played a bit tougher. Here is always difficult, we hadn’t won here for a long time and we just tried to be focused and play tough in the second half,” Higgins echoed his teammate.
Lorenzo Brown with 18 points and Wade Baldwin with 16 points tried their best but couldn’t change the fate of the hosts.
In a close game from the first 30 minutes, Barcelona led by three in the first quarter (23-20), while Maccabi also had a three-point halftime advantage (43-40) and the guests were back up by one at the end of the third period (62-61).
However, Barcelona started the last quarter with an 11-1 run (73-62) creating distance on the most crucial time with Higgins making two threes.
“I think we defended better. We were a little bit tougher. We stopped the one-on-ones, I think we had just six points [allowed] from one-on-one situations,” reacted head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius, “It’s a good win here.”
Maccabi made it a six-point game (73-67), but Barcelona answered back with a quick 5-0 run (78-67) and the game was over.
“It’s always disappointing to lose but I really liked the way we played, I liked the effort,” stated Maccabi tactician Oded Kattash, “There are a lot of things to improve, obviously, it has to be with time, but it’s the right way to do it.”
Barcelona jumped to a 5-2 record, while Maccabi dropped to a 4-3 in the standings.