Maccabi Tel Aviv came up short against Monaco as they succumbed to the Principality’s squad 112-107 in overtime as Mike James did as he pleased throughout the clash as their record fell to 2-7 on the season. The yellow-and-blue stayed in front throughout the majority of the game as Roman Sorkin, TJ Leaf, Jaylen Hoard and Lonnie Walker kept Oded Katash’s team ahead. But James along with Matthew Strazel, Jaron Blossomgame, Elie Okobo and Daniel Theis mounted a late game comeback to tie the contest up to send it to overtime where Vasilis Spanoulis’s squad was able to notch the win.

Walker scored 19 points, Leaf added 18 points while Hoard recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds. James dropped 34 points, Theis put in 17 points as Okobo scored 16 points in the win.

“It’s very disappointing and we played well for the majority of the minutes,” Katash said. “We made some big baskets but so did they and we had to pick our poison so to speak. There was a big effort, but they are very experienced and know how to win these games. We were missing a bit more.

“We played the right way, we tried to stick to our game plan as best as we could, because of how we played on offense we gave up too many points on the transition. We have to be smarter and more experienced. In the end we lost to their quality and physicality, that is something that has hurt us from the beginning of the season.”

TJ Leaf spoke about the tough defeat, “It’s honestly very similar go all of our losses, we had a double digit lead in this one and we let it slip away. Lot of bad fouls when they were in the bonus. It’s just a frustrating it was another one that we f should have had and we let it slip away.”

Roman Sorkin got Maccabi Tel Aviv off to a strong start while surprise starter Gur Lavy dunked for the yellow-and-blue as Jaron Blossomgame and Mike James countered for Monaco but it was Oded Katash squad that took a 26-22 lead after ten minutes of play. Jimmy Clark began to score as did Jaylen Hoard while Daniel Theis and James made sure to keep Vasilis Spanoulis’s team close, but Maccabi took a 49-46 lead into halftime.

Sorkin and Hoard kept scoring, Theis and Okobo did as well, Clark and TJ Leaf scored as well but the yellow-and-blue widened the gap to take a 76-71 lead after thirty minutes. Leaf scored a pair of baskets to begin the fourth quarter but James with points along with Matthew Strazel and Kevarrius Hayes, Walker went from the outside and inside while Clark scored as well to send the game into overtime all knotted up at 96-96.

Lavy went from downtown to start off the extra session, Elie Okobo matched the triple seconds later and on added another basket, Walker put in a 3-point play, Alpha Diallo scored as did Theis to go ahead for good to take the lead of good and sew up the victory.