By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Victor Rudd scored 19 points (14 of them in the first half) and Sylven Landesberg added 18 as Maccabi beat Hapoel 87 – 73 in the grand Tel Aviv derby of the Israeli Winner League.
This is the 12th win of the “Yellows” in 15 games. They still hold the top spot of the standings, while their arch-rivals are third with a 8 – 7 record.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Maccabi‘s victory is that the squad’s master-weapons, Sonny Weems and Drew Goudelock went absolutely scoreless. The latter was also suffering from a swollen ankle. Still, their teammates delivered, since apart from the aforementioned players, DJ Seeley had 14 points and Guy Pnini 13.
Coach Bagatskis’ team assumed an early lead and then kept solidifying its hold on the match going to the locker rooms with a 45 – 36 advantage.
Hapoel fell behind with a double-digit deficit during the third quarter and even though it tried to come back with some strong efforts by Rich Howell (18 points) and Mark Lyons (17 points), Maccabi regained absolute control near the end.