By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
In what was a close game for three quarters, Maccabi Tel Aviv created a 10-point advantage in the last period and seemed to be in control.
However, in the end, the hosts needed a big steal by John DiBartolomeo, two free throws by Lorenzo Brown, and two more by Wade Baldwin to get the close 78-74 win over Fenerbahce BEKO.
Maccabi was leading by the one-point game (74-73), Colson missed his shot and Fenerbahce had the chance to take the lead.
With the game on the line Di Bartolomeo stole the ball with 21 seconds left, Brown and Baldwin made their free throws, while Scotie Wilbekin had one of two against his former team. In the last play of the game, Marko Guduric couldn’t convert a three with six seconds left.
It was a crucial result for the Israeli powerhouse which now has a 14-13 record, good enough for a tie in the 8th position of the standings, while Fener dropped to 16-10 but still remains fourth.
Brown with 21 points once more was the top scorer of Maccabi and got help from John Di Bartolomeo (10 p. 6 r. 3 as.) who registered a career-best with four steals, Roman Sorkin (10 p.), Wade Baldwin (15 p.), and Bonzie Colson (10 p. 7 r.)
As Brown said: “It was a really gutsy [win] for us. Fener is a great team, there are a lot of fast players on that team, so we just had to come out, try to play as aggressively as we can, and get the win, and this is what we did. What I said on the bench is that I was thinking that John [DiBartolomeo] plays really hard. He comes in and works every day, and goes 100 miles per hour.”
On the other hand, Nigel Hayes Davies (16 p.) and Dyshawn Pierre (15 p) tried their best, but the guest shot just 20% in threes (7/34).
Fenerbahce was leading for most of the first half, but they trailed by five at the end of the third quarter (61-56) and Maccabi started the last period with a 7-2 run (68-58).
Fenerbahce managed to tie the score at 71 with a 10-0 run orchestrated by Nemanja Bjelica but with a goal foul Baldwin gave to Maccabi a crucial 74-71 lead with one minute left, setting the stage for the big finish.
Kattash: “We showed character twice”
Maccabi got what they wanted and as coach Oded Kattash said, this was a test of character: “We put a lot of effort [into the game] after a really bad start. We showed character twice: after the bad start, a really bad start. We got down, with no energy, but we found a way to fight back, and also when they came back in the fourth quarter. We stayed there, and stayed positive. I am really proud of the guys; we were fighting. We have to be consistent, the EuroLeague is challenging. It is the top competition!”
For Fenerbahce coach Dimitris Itoudis, things were different: “I think that the second quarter affected us a lot. We have seen that Maccabi has a lot of big plays individually. With only 10 assists, we couldn’t control that second quarter and the game slipped out of our hands. The players fought back, we managed to tie the game and it could have gone a different way, but congratulations to Maccabi”.