By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Tel Aviv was up 69 – 51 with three minutes to go in the third quarter, blew off most of that sum, yet survived Baskonia‘s comeback efforts at home.
Andrew Goudelock scored 21 points, Sylven Landesbrg 18 while Gal Mekel flirted with the triple-double (10 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists) for the “Yellows” that improved their record to 8 – 14 and retain hopes, albeit not many, for the playoffs.
Baskonia, that fell to seventh place of the standings at 12 – 10, had Andrea Bargnani at 17 points, Rodrigue Beaubois with 16, Shane Larkin with 15 points and 4 assists while Johannes Voigtman posted a double-double of 13 points plus 11 rebounds.
The Basques had a spectacular fourth quarter and made it a one possession-game with 1:41 left. But despite having plenty opportunities to possibly “steal” victory, they failed to even attempt a shot in the final play, even though they had 17 seconds at their disposal.
It was surely frustrating for coach Sito Alonso that his team didn’t manage to finish what it started, but quite relieving for the hosts. Maccabi had played excellent basketball on both ends for about 30 minutes, stepping at the fourth period leading 69 – 55. Yet they underestimated their opponents and were sloppy down the stretch… something that didn’t hurt them though.