By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
A feisty Maccabi Tel Aviv put up a fight at the Palau Blaugrana and got away with the 68-67 victory against FC Barcelona in Round 15 of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague. The Israeli team snapped back from their defeat against ASVEL earlier in the week to improve to a 6-9 record in the standings.
Othello Hunter (10 points, 5 rebounds) called game with 13 seconds to go, as he found his way to Barca’s basket while being fouled by Nick Calathes. Even though he missed his awarded free throw, Cory Higgins couldn’t save the day for the hosts with a three-point attempt at the buzzer, with Maccabi celebrating a big victory that ended Barca’s three-game winning streak.
” I think that, from the very first moment, we were very focused to the plan that we had. We were fighting also to support the plan, and for this reason, I think that it was very important how we played the game. It is not easy to keep Barcelona in their home court 20 points lower than the average that they have, because they had 86 and we kept them to 67″, said Giannis Sfairopoulos after the victory.
Dragan Bender led Sfairopoulos’ squad with 15 points, Tyler Dorsey posted 14 points while Elijah Bryant and Hunter shared 10 points each.
Higgins was Barcelona’s leader even though he couldn’t save his team in the end and left the court with 16 points. Nikola Miroti posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds, Kyle Kuric also had 12 points and Nick Calathes added 11.
Barcelona falls to an 11-4 record, leaving CSKA Moscow alone at the top of the EuroLeague standings.