Maccabi Tel Aviv is currently hosting Hapoel Jerusalem in the 11th round of the Winner Basket League. For the Yellows, this is the first game in the local arena after winning the Winner’s Cup for the eighth time, while Oded Katash and his trainees arrive after a premiere loss this season – 99:83 to Nes Ziona.
Yannis Sapropoulos’ squad will miss Othello Hunter following the cut under his eye, Tyler Dorsey, Chris Jones and Sandy Cohen, who was given a short leave to fly to visit his son in the United States. From the other side, the state cup holder will once again go up to play without captain Jacoben Brown, who is still suffering from shoulder pain.
“We come from our bad game. It is clear to us that in Elijah’s hand we will have to be much better and more focused, control the defensive rebound, and prevent them from running and getting to easy baskets,” Oded Katash said before the opening whistle.
the progress of the game
Maccabi Tel Aviv started a little stronger with a levitation by Zizic, in addition to two accurate threes by Scotty Wilbkin. Braimo sniped from a distance and raised the visitors to a 13:11 lead, but Ante Žižić continued to be dominant in color. With points by Caspi and Sussman at the end of the quarter, they settled for Maccabi Tel Aviv 18:24 At the end of ten minutes of basketball.
In the second quarter, Maccabi Tel Aviv increased the gap to 24:34 thanks to easy baskets by Bryant and Sussman. Zizic continued on his own and went up to 14 points – and Maccabi Tel Aviv went up to 33:45. Wilbkin with five threes outside the arc continued to shell. On the other hand, Jerusalem was inaccurate. The champion goes down to the break with a 43:55 advantage.
In the third quarter, Wilbkin buried his sixth and seventh threes out of ten attempts. Bryant added a first three, and two by Omri Caspi set up 60:76. Tamir Blatt tried to minimize damage and reduced to 62:78, Sussman still managed to snatch a fourth offense, but that did not stop the champion from coming down with an advantage 66:81 after 30 minutes.
