Euroleague Basketball: Mac TA pulls out ugly victory at home over Maroussi

Euroleague Basketball M

By ALLON SINAI
Maccabi tel aviv 248.88 (photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
Maccabi tel aviv 248.88
(photo credit: Asaf Kliger)
Maccabi struggled offensively at the start of the game, turning over the ball time and again and never really finding its range. Fortunately for the hosts, Maroussi was far from accurate itself and the game remained tight. Tel Aviv was determined to up the tempo of the encounter after the first period ended in a 15-15 tie, but it still had to toil for each and every basket at the beginning of the second period. The visitors appeared the better of the two sides for most of the quarter and opened a 38-30 advantage thanks to Pat Calathes's three-pointer. However, Tel Aviv erased an eight-point deficit in less than two minutes and Lampe's basket at the buzzer capped a 9-0 run which gave Maccabi a 41-40 halftime lead. The momentum remained on Tel Aviv's side after the interval and Pnini's basket with 3:40 to play in the third quarter opened a 54-46 gap. The yellow-and-blue ended the period with four straight points and took a promising 61-54 advantage into the final 10 minutes, but Maccabi struggled to put the game away. Wisniewski's fifth point of the quarter opened a 68-59 lead, and despite Maroussi's best efforts the Greeks never truly threatened to complete a comeback and Maccabi held on for another Euroleague win.