By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
On a test of mental strength, Maccabi managed to close the game the right way and beat previously perfect on-the-road Olympiacos with the final score being 90-84.
Wade Baldwin with 22 points was the top scorer of the winning side, Lorenzo Brown added 16 points and six assists, while Jarell Martin proved to be the key with big shots down the stretch and 13 points.
John DiBartolomeo also added 11 points and seven rebounds for the hosts who dominated the boards with 40 against 26 for Olympiacos.
For coach Oded Kattash the key was his team’s energy and playing at home: “We played against a very good team. It was a difficult game, as you saw, but we showed character. We found the way with energy, and everyone helped. The atmosphere helped us, especially with such a difficult schedule. We’re used to it, but it was still great.”
Olympiacos got a career-high of 21 points by Giannoulis Larentzakis, a double-double by Sasha Vezenkov (17 p. 10 r.), 15 points by Kostas Sloukas, and 13 by Kostas Papanikolaou but they were not enough.
It was a close game during the first half with Olympiacos leading most of the time. However, in the third period, the Reds got a 10-point advantage (56-46) for the first time, with Vezenkov having 14 points and Papanikolaou adding 10 without missing a shot up to this point.
Maccabi trimmed the lead to six (56-50) after an unsportsmanlike foul by Isaiah Canaan, but Olympiacos answered back with a quick 5-0 run to make it an 11-point game (61-50).
Thanks to a buzzer-beating three by Bonzie Colson which were his only points of the game, Maccabi entered the last period trailing again by six (69-63), and Jarell Martin with one more three got his team into sticking distance (69-66).
That was the key point for Olympiacos coach Giorgos Bartzokas: “When we were ten points ahead of the score, we had to manage better. It’s unacceptable to lose a double-digit lead, we made a lot of mistakes and allowed them to get back into the game. Many times we put the ball in their hands, and we had to have better ball movement and a clear mind. In the fourth quarter I think the momentum changed in favor of Maccabi Tel Aviv, they took control at that point, and then got the win”.
The hosts kept pushing and with six minutes they finally got a 73-71 with Martin again hitting the three to complete a 10-2 run. The answer came from Larentzakis with another three (74-73) and Lorenzo Brown gave to Maccabi the lead again with – what else – one more three (76-74).
The hosts never lost the lead again, jumping to an 80-74 lead and that was the end of it. Olympiacos didn’t give up, and Larentzakis made two more big threes, but Maccabi players also had their share of big plays, including a big block of Roman Sorkin to Vezenkov.
Maccabi now has a 5-4 record, while Olympiacos dropped to 6-3.