By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Ramat Gan capitalized on the absence of VEF Riga’s experienced player Dairis Bertans, securing their first Basketball Champions League win of the season.
The Israeli side handed the Latvian team their first defeat, taking a 78-71 victory in Víceúčelová Hala Opava.
Amir Stevens with 16 points and eight rebounds, and Roberto Gallinat with 16 points and five boards, led the winning side, while Drew Crawford with 13 points and Kendale McCullum with 11 points followed.
On the other side, Issuf Sanon with 19 points and eight rebounds, and Harrison Cleary with 17 points, tried their best to compensate for the absence of Bertans, but it wasn’t enough, as only Gage Davis and Vyacheslav Bobrov followed with 10 points each.
Bertans’ abscense
Head coach of VEF Riga, Martiņs Gulbis, talked about how his side missed Dairis Bertans, who scored 31 points in an opening win over Telekom Baskets Bonn.
“This is the BCL, there is no room for soft play, but there are some reasons. This is not our identity. On Saturday, we lost our captain, who scored 30 points in the first game, and that changes a lot. Players had to change their roles, as well as how we play on offense and defense. We were looking at each other and didn’t pass the ball, thinking that Dairis would be with us, but there was no chance for him to come back now. I didn’t like that we lost every 50-50 ball, that is really bad.”
Postgame press conference: