Team wins 90-83 victory over Italian team at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv on Thursday night.
By JEREMY LASTLior Eliyahu 248.88(photo credit: Asaf Kliger )
Maccabi Tel Aviv wiped away memories of last week's Euroleague opening defeat at Cibona Zagreb with a convincing 90-83 victory over Italian team Air Avellino at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv on Thursday night.
The home team led for the majority of the game but really took control at the start of the second half when it scored 16 unanswered points to open up a 20-point lead.
Effi Birenboim's team played some quality basketball in its first European game in front of its home fans this season, delighting the 11,000 supporters.
Maccabi's Carlos Arroyo led all scorers with 20 points while Lior Eliyahu added 14.
Chris Warren scored 20 points for the visitors but it was not enough to make any real impact.
The result will give some respite to Birenboim, who has been under pressure since the loss in Croatia.
Maccabi had been due to play Hapoel Jerusalem in the BSL this weekend but both teams will get a rest because the game was postponed until November 20 as Jerusalem is playing its Eurocup playoff against Unics Kazan in Russia on Tuesday.
Eliyahu showed what he is made of early on by scoring an alley-opp basket off a perfect Tal Burstein pass to tie the game at 2-2.
Despite his NBA credentials there has been some concern in the Maccabi camp over the performances of Arroyo.
However he was the top scorer for Maccabi in the first quarter with 10 points, first hitting a three-pointer with five minutes gone to put his team up 9-6.
D'or Fischer was defensively impressive for the home team, regularly popping up under the Avellino basket to block shots and pick up rebounds.
The team in yellow and blue controlled the game at the start and another alley-oop from Eliyahu, this time off an Arroyo pass, made the score 19-14 to Maccabi.
With 16 seconds left in the first quarter Arroyo scored his 10th point of the game and Maccabi led 26-19 at the break.
Avellino began eating away at Maccabi's lead as the first half went on and, with 5:08 left to play, two free throws from Drake Diener made it 30-28.
But Maccabi fought back and at half time the Israelis were up by six (45-39) and in the driver's seat.
Fischer scored two from the free throw line not long after the teams came back on court and Maccabi had a ten-point cushion (49-39) a minute and a half into the third quarter.
The visitors were missing shots from all over the court while Maccabi kept on scoring.
After only a single point in the first half, Fischer was the man-of-the-moment, and another basket gave the hosts a 17-point lead (56-39) and his ninth point of the game.
Marcus Brown then hit a triple to end the 16-point run and Tel Aviv was up by 20 (59-39). Maccabi pushed on throughout the quarter and with ten minutes left was up 73-54.
The last quarter saw Avellino fight back, but it couldn't make a significant dent in the lead as Tel Aviv went on to take the victory.
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