Βy Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv at home is a different animal and it was proven once again against Partizan Mozzart Bet.
The Israelis got the 90-81 win leading from wire to wire and getting also the head-to-head tiebreaker over Partizan thanks to the final points difference.
Lorenzo Brown with 21 points and five assists and Βonzie Colson also with a EuroLeague career high of 19 points, seven rebounds, and an impressive block against Mathias Lessort in the closing seconds led the way for the winners.
“I just take what the defense gives me and try to stay active, but we have to move on because we have a big one coming”, said Colson after the final buzzer giving credit also to Maccabi’s fans for the 8-1 record of the club at home.
“The energy is amazing, we have the best fans in EuroLeague and we have to keep it up”, added Colson.
Partizan managed to trim the lead of Maccabi to six points three times in the last minutes and Kevin Punter after making a big three (83-77) missed the chance with one more to make it a three-point game.
John DiBartolomeo answered back with his own big shot (86-77) and the game was over.
Punter in total had 22 points, Dante Exum added 17, and Zach LeDay had 15. Still, it was Maccabi’s night with the hosts starting the game leading 24-13 in the first quarter, by seven at halftime (46-39), and by 11 (64-53) entering the last period.
“We played the game the right way, we started strong and we managed to slow our opponents down, I love the way we played”, said coach Oded Kattash.
For Partizan coach Zeliko Obradovic, things were simple about his team: “Some things were good, some very bad, I’m not happy with our offensive decisions. There were a lot of turnovers, 13, and just 10 assists. It’s impossible to win a game in the Euroleague with these statistics. Especially when you lose balls like which we were losing, for no reason at all. We gave them opportunities to run and score easy points”.
Partizan couldn’t even tie the score and dropped to an 8-10 record, while Maccabi jumped to 10-8.