Maccabi Tel Aviv kept its perfect BSL record intact Monday night with a 101-72 victory.
By JERRY MITTLEMANmaccabi 88(photo credit: )
Maccabi Tel Aviv kept its perfect BSL record intact Monday night with a 101-72 victory over Hapoel Galil Elyon-Golan at Nokia Arena.
Galil came into the Matchday 11 game injured and shorthanded. Both Lior Eliyahu, out with a broken hand and Uche Nsonwu, suffering from a sprained ankle, were sorely missed. Maccabi, on the other hand, easily overcame the absence of Nikola Vujic, who was the foreign player designated to sit out the game.
The overmatched and undermanned visitors managed to keep it close in the opening quarter. Galil, playing at a casual pace and employing a zone defense, contained Maccabi's attack and actually dominated the first five minutes of action before falling beyond 26-22 at the end of the quarter.
In the following period, Maccabi succeeded in cracking Galil's zone wide-open. Maccabi went 9-for-13 from beyond the arc in the first half, including seven threepointers in the second quarter alone. Most were uncontested, as the air went out of Galil's defense and Maccabi breezed to a 58-44 halftime advantage.
Maccabi's Tal Burstein hit his first four three-pointers and led his team's first-half attack with 15 points. He was closely followed by Sharon Shason's 14 points, while Maceo Baston chipped in with 11.
Galil's offense remained effective despite a faltering defense and Sasha Bratic led with 11 points.
Will Solomon dominated the third quarter of play as Maccabi extended it's lead to 78-55. Solomon scored 10 of his team's 20 points in the period and added two flashy assists.
The final quarter was extended garbage time with Maccabi going over 100 points with 10 seconds remaining in the contest.
Bratic led all scorers with 25 points, while Shason paced Maccabi's balanced attack with 18 points.
Hapoel Jerusalem faces Bnei Hasharon on Tuesday in a make-up game from Matchday 9.
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
