By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Although Crvena Zvezda mts made a late surge to send the game into overtime, Scottie Wilbekin stepped up for Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv in the extra five minutes and gave them an 84-69 home win in Round 3 of Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Scottie Wilbekin scored 16 points including nine in the overtime as well as the three-point dagger. Nate Wolters and Omri Casspi added 15 points each while the latter also grabbed eight boards.
However, Wilbekin was the star of the show.
Maccabi had a 67-57 lead with five minutes left but Ognjen Dobric sparked Zvezda’s 10-0 comeback run with seven points and Michael Ojo scored one of his two free throws to send the game into overtime as Yovel Zoosman missed a triple for the win.
For Zvezda, Perperoglou banked game-high 18 points in addition to Dobric’s ten points.
Maccabi coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos won against his former assistant at Olympiacos, now Zvezda coach, Milan Tomic as both teams hold a 1-2 record. It was a special night for Maccabi, since longtime team president Simon Mizrahi celebrated his 80th birthday with a win.
Overcoming panic, focus… and Scottie Wilbekin
On the court, however, they key for Maccabi was keeping its calm in crucial moments.
“Keeping concentration, because it’s most important. We were panicking when they started coming back and those are the moments when we have to believe in ourselves and make better and smarter decisions. We started throwing on the outside. I think we’ll have to learn from this and do a lot of good work in the next games”, Sfairopoulos said and also commented on Wilbekin: “Yes, Scottie has shown in many games that he can lead the team and be the one to take command at the crucial moments.”
Wilbekin didn’t allow his bad shooting night to stop him from taking over the game in overtime: “I was really focussed in overtime. I didn’t want to get a third loss. We started playing extra hard in overtime and I was just trying to be aggressive. I didn’t get anything going in the first four quarters, so I just tried to force it.”
Maccabi kicked off the game strong with a 17-2 run and stayed ahead thanks to Wolters and Casspi’s nine points each as well as great ball movement and seven steals while Perperoglou dropped 14 to keep Zvezda – which turned the ball over 11 times – alive (39-30).
Barely anything changed after the break, as the hosts kept their distance throughout the third quarter (55-47) and although Zvezda bounced back in the fourth quarter thanks to Filip Covic and Dobric, Maccabi came out on top in overtime led by Wilbekin.