“Bad night, the 4th quarter was one big catastrophe”

Maccabi Tel Aviv had a hard time finding the words after the fall display in the fourth quarter last night (Thursday) that led to the team’s 16th loss of the season in the Euroleague, 81:63 to Panathinaikos. The loss left Yannis Sapropoulos’ side six games away from eighth place. The Yellows started the game very weakly and finished it even weaker against the Greeks of Oded Katash who inflicted the loss on them with the highest gap this season.

“We had a really bad evening,” said those around the team, referring to the ability on the floor. The national champion had a hard time against the length and size of the Greens from Athens, but especially against positions three and four that combined no less than 59 points out of the 81 scored by Pau. “The fourth quarter was one big catastrophe,” the yellow club said, after Sapropoulos’ players stopped on four points for very long minutes and finished it with eight points in total, making the decisive quarter Maccabi’s weakest quarter last night.

Yannis Sapropoulos (Itzik Belnitsky)

The group around them said they had to be competitive. The end of the third quarter may have given hope to the team, but a combination of two weak quarters (first and fourth) in which the team scored 17 points charged too high a price against an opponent they could and should also win. Of all the players on the team, only three finished the game with a double-digit index, John Dibertolomao, Ante Žižić and Scotty Wilbkin who was also the only player to score in double digits.

From a team that wanted to threaten the Final Four last year, to the current version that was just off and unstable last night, the team around again mentioned: “We lost ten games in the last shot”, as what decided the season and the fight for the playoffs. , Last night in fact Ante Žižić was the only one in the chin position who provided numbers when it comes to points and rebounds with 9 and 8 respectively. He admitted the 10 losses in a team that is difficult to win without Othello Hunter who did not get into the rhythm against Katsch’s team with a point and four rebounds.

Othello Hunter disappointed (Itzik Blanitzky)

After the game he said Ante Žižić: “We were not as aggressive for the 40 minutes as we should have been, the second and third quarters were good, but we failed to maintain the ability in the fourth quarter, and we reached the last minutes without energy, it is a hard loss but we will continue to fight and play with pride in every game.”

John Dibertolomao He added: “It was a hard loss, we were not able to execute as we wanted, but we still fought. We came close and trailed by three points at the beginning of the fourth quarter when we had the momentum but could not keep pushing.”