Maccabi Big Runs

Maccabi Tel Aviv got off to a slow start against Bnei Herzliya after falling to Milano last week in Euroleague play but as the game headed towards halftime, the Yellow & Blue took advantage of the visitor’s turnovers and went on an 7-0 run to close out the second quarter making a 38-36 lead into a 45-36 advantage and that was that. Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s team came out of the break in fine form to go on an 18-3 run and effectively finish the game off right then and there as Chris Jones was the catalyst at the start of the third quarter to send Maccabi on its way.

“The numbers showed the picture of the game,” began Sfairopoulos. “We had 98 and Herzliya had 75. Usually when they win they score 90 points, but we held them defensively. We kept them at only 4 points at the end of the half and we came out well in the third quarter scoring in transition and on breaks. We had some good moments but some where we could have performed better. 98 points and 23 assists show we had a good offensive game.”

Sharon Drucker, the Bnei Herzliya coach agreed with the Maccabi bench bosses’s assessment of the game, “We kind of lost the game at the end of the half when we gave up points after having the ball but we lost it and Blazyer hit a last second triple. The second half we weren’t able to keep up. We started giving away the ball and they were becoming more aggressive.” As to the point of Maccabi coming out a but flat, Sfairopoulos agreed that the club definitely could have played better, “We only shot 33% from 3, but Herzliya started with a zone defense and we missed some open shots but we shot 67% from two and we had a good offensive game. If we shot a bit better we could have made it even easier for ourselves.” Finally, Ante Zizic had this to say about the game that was, “I think we did a great job. The whole second half we controlled the game. Everything started with good defense. We ran transitions very good and we shared the ball as everybody had a chance to play.”

Jones Coming Along

As for Chris Jones, it wasn’t lost on the coach that the guard has had a pretty good run of late after sitting out for a couple of weeks due to the club only being able to dress 5 import players. In his first game back last week Jones scored 15 points and added 9 assists, on Thursday in the loss to Milano, Jones was one of the bright lights with 10 points and versus Bnei Herzliya, Jones scored 14 points and dished out 10 assists for a nice double double. Jones looks like the player that Maccabi thought they were signing during the offseason and in his case perhaps it just took a little more time than was expected, “All these players need time and there are so many games,” explained Sfairopoulos. Chris had never played in the Euroleague and it’s not easy to be hungry when you play every game and to give maximum every time. You have to give your heart and soul and you learn how to do it. There is a procedure to this and it takes time. When he was out he rested and he mentally relaxed his mind. This small break I think it helped him to become more fresh and he has good ideas, good decisions and good passes.” Big man Ante Zizic who benefitted from the assists also commented on the guard’s fine play of late, “He did a really good job and had a lot of assists. He’s a good guy and a good player.”

Heidegger’s Austrian Connection

Since arriving at Bnei Herzliya, Max Heidegger has played fabulous basketball scoring in double digits in all 9 games until he met up with the team that loaned him out, Maccabi Tel Aviv. Not to say 7 points is a poor game, but Heidegger along with most of his teammates struggled mightily against Maccabi Tel Aviv as they did the best that they could versus a Euroleague team. Heidegger was matched up with John Dibartolomeo for many minutes of the game and had a tough time dealing with his physicality and speed, however, despite the rough time, he was happy to be back playing against his former teammates, “It was cool and I was grateful to be here and see everyone. At the end of the day we tried to steal a win and it just didn’t work out. It was us giving up the ball and we have to be better on the defensive side. We are still trying to mesh with all of the guys and we’d like to have that happen sooner than later.”

Heidegger, whose father was a world class Austrian skier is still close to his family’s roots as both Hannah Liko, the Austrian Ambassador to Israel along with Willi Ruttensteiner, the Israel National Team coach who is also from Austria came to the game to root the guard on. “My dad was a skier and they know each other. It’s great to have a support system in the country it was good they were able to come and watch me play and they are really great people.” You can listen to The Sports Rabbi’s interview with Max Heidegger that was released just this last week below.