After the big and dramatic victory against Barcelona in Spain, Maccabi Tel Aviv recorded another victory tonight (Tuesday), they could have finished it easily after a great first half, but a one-time performance by Nemanja Nedovic, who finished with a career high of 39 points, pulled the game Until the last minute, and Maccabi Tel Aviv finished with an important 81:89 victory against Panathinaikos.
Scored for Maccabi Tel Aviv: Scotty Wilbkin 22 points, Othello Hunter 13 points, Elijah Bryant 13 points, Chris Jones 9 points, Dragon Bender 9 points, Angelo Cloiaro 5 points, Tyler Dorsey 5 points , Omri Caspi 4 points, Yuval Sussman 3 points, Oz Blazer 2 points.
Scored to Pao: Nemanja Nadovic 39 points, Ben Bentil 9 points, Marcus Foster 7 points, Giorgios Papagianis 6 points, Konstantinos Mitoglou 6 points, Shalvin Mack 5 points, Yannis Papatro 4 points, Ian Vogiukas 2 points.
Despite a great defense in the first half of the game, which led the Yellows to a record advantage of 14 points, Maccabi encountered an unusual game, of Nedovich. In fact, the Serb has become the player to score the most points against Maccabi Tel Aviv since the senior European enterprise became the Euroleague. How one-off performance was his? 7 of 13 from outside the arc, six assists and no less than 45 index points, all in less than 30 minutes on the floor, and when none of the other Panathinaikos players scored in double figures.
But Maccabi Tel Aviv also has its star. Scotty Wilbkin, who was there to score the important points in the fourth quarter, made Nadovic’s huge performance dwarf, because in practice the Greeks were unable to even equalize in their great run. The Maccabi Tel Aviv star scored 12 points in the last quarter and erased the fact that he had previously been involved in a foul problem. A tremendously simple performance by Wilbkin.
But everything described above mainly tells the fourth quarter, which somehow Maccabi managed to get into a situation where it gets into trouble at all. In the first half, the Yellows played a game that was close to perfection. A great defensive display, with excellent ability of Omri Caspi, which although looked heavy, and even weakened later, but provided excellent minutes, which marked the escape of Maccabi in the first part of the game.
Yannis Sapropoulos divided the minutes between the players, and got to see eleven of his 12 players score points, with only John Dibertlomao, who is not a partner, not scoring. Those who further contributed to the effort with important points were Dragon Bender, who provided clutch shots in the fourth quarter, and Othello Hunter and Elijah Bryant who showed composure from the line. It was the 26th time these two teams have met in the history of the Euroleague and thanks to the yellow win tonight, the balance stands at 13 wins each.
Now, after the second consecutive victory of Maccabi Tel Aviv, Yannis Sapropoulos is expected to play three important games now – Zenit at home, Alba Berlin away and Olympiacos at Yad Eliyahu. Three victories, and Maccabi will be able to feel good about itself and its chances of reaching the top eight in the factory.