ONE System | 18/02/2021 21:45
Ante Žižić (Armani Milano)
After more than three weeks in which she was absent from the Euroleague, Maccabi Tel Aviv has at this time returned to Europe’s senior factory for a heated encounter against the powerful Milan of Ettore Messina.
The Israeli champion, who has been busy in recent weeks only in the local arena, came to Italy with excellent momentum after six consecutive victories, the most prominent of which was the extraordinary comeback in the semi-final of the State Cup against Hapoel Holon. The last game of the yellow-blues in Europe was in the loss in Turkey to Fenerbahce and at this point they are with ten wins against 12 losses.
As mentioned, the Israeli champion of Yannis Sapropoulos has two more games left to complete due to the closure of the skies in Israel, but if she wants to maintain a realistic chance of reaching the top eight of the Euroleague, an away win against Messina’s star battery is a must.
On the other hand, the Italians, who came after the easy win in the Italian Cup, are missing Zack Lydie, but even without him Messina’s squad is deep and impressive and not coincidentally at this stage of the busy season the host is in 3rd place and prestigious in the Euroleague with an impressive 15 wins and eight losses. In the last game in Europe the Italians surprisingly surrendered to Willerbahn.
First quarter: 12:21 to Armani Milano
The Maccabi Tel Aviv quintet: Scotty Wilbkin, Elijah Bryant, Angelo Cloiaro, Oz Blazer and Othello Hunter.
Milan quintet: Malcolm Delaney, Kevin Panther, Shawn Shields, Luigi Datuma and Caleb Tarzowski.
Hunter opened with two points on a half-distance shot, with Bon Shields answering with 4 straight points that made it 2-4. Panther scored 2 more easy points before Sussman shrank to 6-4 after a nice assist from Wilbkin. Maccabi continued to miss outside the arc and the Italians ran away to 4:10.
The Yellows continued to have a hard time producing baskets, and a positioning three set up already 5:13 for the host, and another basket by Haynes raised the Italians’ lead to 10 and sent Sapropolos to take a timeout in an attempt to wake his players.
Chris Jones with a hard shot shrank to 15: 7, but Michael Roll answered with a three from the other side. Dorsey missed from outside the arc (0 of 5 for Maccabi in the quarter), Panther scored three shots from the line, but the Yellows ended the quarter with a basket move and a foul by Zizic that might give them hope for the future. 12:21 to the Italians.
Second quarter: 27:39 to Armani Milano
Milan started with a quick 0: 5 and ran to a double-digit gap. Dragon Bender with 2 free throws shrank to 26:16, before four consecutive points by Kevin Panther who had already reached 9 personalities set a record advantage for the Italians, 16:30. Angelo Cloiaro and Dragon Bender shrank to 30:20, Milan took a timeout and came back with Delaney speed points.
Positioning set 20:35 before Elijah Bryant finally scored Maccabi’s first three-pointer of the game (1 of 11 for the Yellows after almost two quarters). But Maccabi got stuck again, Milan did what they wanted in the attack and Kyle Haynes’ points set 25:37. Bender still managed to score in the layup, and at the end of the quarter 27:29 to Milan.
Third quarter:
Maccabi started with a quick basket from Chris Jones, but Delaney immediately responded with points of his own. Wilbkin continued to miss but Jones with a three shrank to nine points. The Yellows finally started to hit from outside the arc and a three by Elijah Bryant sent the Italians to take a timeout as their gap narrowed to just 6 points, 41:35.
Milan came back from the timeout with a three by Datoma, Maccabi again lost direction in the game, and Panthers’ three and another by Datoma set 35:50, and this time Sapropulos hurried to take a timeout that did not really excite the Maccabi players and Milan went up to 37:54.
Chris Jones with another three went on to excel in yellow,
