By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Olympiacos registered its 17th victory in the EuroLeague regular season and further cemented its presence in the Top-4 of the standings after downing Maccabi 71 – 82 in Tel Aviv.
The Israelis’ job was already difficult before the game started, with Drew Goudelock, Devin Smith, Joe Alexander and Quincy Miller being sidelined due to injuries. Their playoffs chances are practically nonexistent now, since their record is 8 – 16.
The Reds performed solid basketball on both ends, particularly in the first 15 minutes after halftime and outmatched their opponents in energy and efficiency with five players dropping double-digit numbers.
Erick Green had 16, Matt Lojeski 15 plus 4 assists, Giorgos Printezis 15 and 5 rebounds while Dominic Waters notched a 14 points EuroLeague career-high, 8 of them early in the fourth quarter.
It was then that Maccabi fell behind 55 – 74, being unable to counter its guests’ action due to few solutions at the bench. But even though coach Bagatskis’ guys were spent, they didn’t give up.
With nothing to lose, the “Yellows” began striking with quick attacks, cutting the deficit to eight, 71 – 70 after a three-pointer by Gal Mekel. But some timeouts by coach Sfairopoulos alerted his players well enough to not show any suicidal tendencies near the end.
Mekel was one of the of the top players of Maccabi with 12 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Sylven Landesberg dropped 17, Victor Rudd 12 plus 6 rebounds and Yogev Ohayon 11.