By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Barcelona captured its third EuroLeague win in a row by beating a shorthanded Maccabi Tel Aviv 74 – 58 at Palau Blaugrana for Round 5 of the competition.
The trio of Victor Claver (game-highs 14 points, seven rebounds, 22 PIR), Kyle Kuric (13 points) and Ante Tomic (12 points, eight rebounds) did most of the hard work for Barcelona. The latter also combined the win with becoming the EuroLeague all-time leader in 2-pointers made.
That was the fourth loss in five games for Maccabi. If it wasn’t enough that they already had to fight through problems with the absent Jeremy Pargo and the present – yet visibly not ready following his injury – Scottie Wilbekin, center Tarik Black was ruled out prior to the match.
“Wilbekin only had one practice with the team before this game. His thumb still bothers him and it is his shooting hand. It is very difficult to play like this. Also, our starting point guard Pargo is out, and he could have released that pressure from him, also Tarik Black didn’t play tonight… It is too much for us,” Maccabi coach Neven Spahija said. The “Yellows” stayed competitive for one half (34-33) despite getting severely outrebounded, but were overwhelmed in the third period.
Barcelona entered the second half in a very aggressive fashion, attacking the basket over and over again to take a 48 – 35 lead in five minutes. Maccabi reacted momentarily but a new run by Barca, this time 9 – 0, put them down by 19 at the end of the quarter. It was a margin good enough for the Blaugrana and too much for the guests.
“In the third quarter, we started to play our basketball from defense. We took a great advantage, got inside points, then Kuric made 2 consecutive three-pointers and after that everything was a little bit easier,” Barca coach Svetislav Pesic said.
Johnny O’ Bryant (10 points, six rebounds), Angelo Caloiaro (11 points) and Alex Tyus (9 points, eight rebounds) were the top contributors from Maccabi.