Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Partizan Belgrade 95-93 in Euroleague action late Tuesday night at Yad Eliyahu as Jimmy Clark drained the game-winning basket as the clock hit zero to give the yellow-and-blue the victory.
With the win, Oded Katash’s team improved its Euroleague record to 11-15, and it will play the back end of the double week in Serbia at Red Star Belgrade on Friday.
Prior to the game, Maccabi held a very special ceremony honoring Partizan for hosting the club for more than two years after the terrorist attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Dylan Osetkowski and Iffe Lundberg were the principal scorers for their respective squads in the opening quarter, while Clark and Isaac Bonga scored as well, and Maccabi went ahead 27-22. Osetkowski continued to find the basket as Sterling Brown and Bonga added points while Lundberg continued to score for the hosts, but Partizan took a 50-48 lead into halftime.
Brown didn’t miss as the third quarter began while Roman Sorkin and Clark responded, but Brown and Payne bumped up the Partizan lead to 77-72.
Lundberg and Marcio Santos filled the basket, Bruno Fernando scored some key baskets, but Clark nailed the game-winning jumper as time expired to give Maccabi the win.
Clark and Lundberg each scored 21 points while Santos added 17 points for Maccabi in the win, while Brown scored 19 points as Osetkowski and Fernando each put in 17 points in the defeat.
“I’m very happy for the win, and we found a way,” Katash said. “We couldn’t have done it without the crowd in a great atmosphere. We weren’t aggressive enough, and at halftime I told the guys, it doesn’t feel like we wanted to win. Credit to Partizan, and we knew it was going to be a totally different game than last time, but I’m happy for Jimmy, he really deserved it, but we have to learn the lesson.”
Katash also spoke about the ceremony held before the contest.
“It was very emotional for me. The way they hosted us made us feel it was our second home; it was very special, and I want to thank everyone in Belgrade; they deserved this ceremony.”
“Congratulations to Maccabi for the win and to congratulations to my players, we deserved more,” Partizan coach Joan Pennaroya began. “In the last minutes, Maccabi scored the important shots, and we missed those shots.”
Clark, the game’s MVP, spoke about the win.
“I had confidence out there thanks to my teammates and the coach; they trusted me with that last shot. They gave me the ball and I just thank God for it. We’re trying to build on what we have and looking to get better every day.”
Hapoel Tel Aviv falls to Red Star Belgrade
Meanwhile, Hapoel Tel Aviv fell to Red Star Belgrade 87-75 as the Serbians mounted a huge fourth-quarter comeback to erase a 69-62 Tel Aviv lead after minutes to take the victory.
With the loss, the Reds saw their record drop to 16-9. While they remain in third place, with Wenerbahce’s win over Barcelona, Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad is now two games behind the top spot in the standings. Next up for Hapoel is a home clash against Valencia, which fell at Anadolu Efes and is currently in fifth place with a 16-10 record.
Codi Miller-McIntyre, Jared Butler, along with Chima Moneke and Jordan Nwora all scored for Red Star while Ish Wainright, Colin Malcolm, Bar Timor, and Dan Oturu countered for Hapoel Tel Aviv, which was playing without star guard Elijah Bryant.
Sasa Obradovic’s squad took a 49-45 lead at halftime, and while Wainright, Chris Jones, and Oturu continued to score at will in the third quarter to give Hapoel a 69-62 lead, a red-hot Nwora was unstoppable in the final frame to lead the hosts to the 12-point victory.
Jones scored 16 points, Wainright added 15 points, and Malcolm scored nine points for Hapoel in the loss, while Nwora put in 22 points, Butler scored 17 points, and Miller-McIntyre chipped in with 10 points for Belgrade in the win.
“We fought very well for three quarters,” Itoudis said. “We managed to build up a good margin for that period. But we couldn’t respond at the end to the aggressiveness. It was too much of a load for our ball creators and we couldn’t respond to that. We needed more people to contribute.”
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