By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
It’s Day 2 of the “Diamonds Are Forever” tournament and while all lights are upon the retirement of Dimitris Diamantidis’ jersey that will now take its place in the sky of OAKA, Maccabi and Barceloan tested their strength to start the night.
The “Yellows” were victorious 92 – 87, winning the match pretty much in some last-minute details.
There was no small amount of lead changes and ties in the match due to many ups and downs in the teams’ performances. It was during one of those sequences that Maccabi came back from an 11-point deficit, 83 – 72 and make it 83 – 82.
With the score 85 – 85, momentum in their hands and less than 60 seconds remaining, coach Edelstein’s players took advantage of some poor reactions of their opponents and scored two consecutive lay-ups that put them on the driver’s seat for good.
From the Israelis, that were much more efficent than yesterday’s match vs Panathinaikos, Victor Rudd was the top scorer with 18 points while Devin Smith had 16 Gal Mekel produced 14 points and Sylven Landesbeg 10.
Once again Tyrese Rice was the protagonist of Barcelona with 23 points. Ante Tomic added 15 and Sasa Vezenkov 12.