By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Maccabi Tel Aviv beat Valencia 84 – 72 to capture its first win after four consecutive losses in the EuroLeague regular season. Thanks to this result, the “Yellows” improved to 11-15 and retain some their mathematical chances for the playoffs, given that they have also two suspended games yet to be played.
This was the second straight loss for Valencia that dropped to 14 – 13. The Spanish team led 51 – 53 near the end of the third quarter until Maccabi proceeded to take the lead thanks to an 11-3 run.
Tyler Dorsey (a team-high 17 points) scored multiple buckets to ensure that Maccabi will stay up while Ante Zizic gave the hosts a double-digit lead, 71 – 61 with five minutes to play. Valencia tried to come back but the hosts held on and Omri Casspi drained the dagger for the 82 – 68 in his top-scoring game (14 points) of the season. Chris Jones also had 14 points for Maccabi.
“I just played hard,” Dorsey said. “We needed to win, we were in a negative moment lately and it feels good to get a win. You never know what is going to happen, our back is against the wall, so we need to get every win we can. It’s good to get a win with the fans here.”
Louis Labeyrie dropped a game-high 18 points and Sam Van Rossom had 14 points for Valencia.
“We competed well in this game, but when we lost control of the boards, the fight for the rebounds, they started to run, to make threes, to take control of the rhythm of the game,” Valencia coach Jaume Ponsarnau said. “We tried to play physical, because they are a physical team, but we probably lost that battle tonight.”
Everything starts from defense
This has been one of the things coach Giannis Sfairopoulos has been preaching and this is exactly how Maccabi tipped the scales to its favor in the second half to get the win.
“I think we improved our rebounding in the second half,” Sfairopoulos said. “We had problems in the first half, they took 10 offensive boards then, but only 2 after halftime. The aggressiveness of our defense gave us stops and also good rhythm in offense. We scored 18 points more in the second half because of our good defense.”
Photo: EuroLeague Basketball