By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
A dynamic performance for 30 minutes was more than enough for Maccabi Tel Aviv to beat Olympiacos 80 – 73 on the road. A score which doesn’t reflect neither how superior Maccabi was for the vast majority of the match, nor how ugly Oly’s game was at times.
Firing at will from behind the arc and shutting down most of their opponents’ offensive plays, the “Yellows” improved their record to 5-4, same as the one of Olympiacos.
The man in charge for Maccabi Tel Aviv was DJ Seeley who dropped 19 points with many shots that “killed” the hosts’ psychology in timely moments of the match. Sonny Weems gave great all-around help of 10 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds, Colton Iverson ruled inside the paint with 14 points plus 8 rebounds and Devin Smith registered a double-double of 10 points plus 10 rebounds.
Matt Lojeski (15 points), Vassilis Spanoulis (14 points) and Erick Green (10 points) scored in double digits for Olympiacos while Khem Birch was the team’s top performer with 8 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.
Maccabi showed its intentions right from the start with Sonny Weems and Devin Smith’s jump shots giving their team an early seven-point lead 5- 12 without even moving the ball inside the paint. The guests kept on the same pace increasing the difference to double-digit numbers. With the score 9 – 20, some good defenses by Olympiacos in 1 vs 1 situations combined with solid ball movement on the other end gave the Reds enough opportunities for a 11 – 4 partial score that brought them closer 20 – 24 at the end of the first quarter.
With Colton Iverson doing what Maik Zirbes couldn’t before at the low post, Maccabi kept filling the basket of Olympiacos retaining a lead. The Reds sank their first three-pointers in the game in the mid of the second period cutting the deficit to three, 29 – 32. Yet on the other side D.J. Seeley was simply unstoppable, dropping one long range bucket after the other making his points 13 and helping Maccabi repel its opponents’ counterattack as the first half finished 37 – 44 for the guests.
The second half started in the most spectacular way imaginable for Maccabi thanks to two back to back slams by Weems and Rudd. And that was just a prelude for what would come next. With Olympiacos acting almost desperate in its offensive attempts by shooting one hasty jumper after the other, the “Yellows” found the opportunity to steadily increase their lead up to 17 points, 40 – 57. The Reds had scored only three points in the first 6 minutes of the period, gloriously failing to make even their wide open shots (6/33 three-pointers in total).
Olympiacos launched a comeback assault in the fourth quarter but lacked the appropriate consistency on both ends in order to complete it, managing only to cut Maccabi’s lead to 9 points, 65 – 74 with almost three minutes to go. Weems made sure that his team would remain safe, either by making buckets himself or by assisting his teammates and even though the Reds got a bit closer near the end, the Israelis left Athens victorious.