Maccabi Tel Aviv came up short once again in Euroleague play as they fell to Red Star Belgrade 81-73 at the Belgrade Arena in Serbia. The loss dropped the yellow-and-blue’s record to 4-13 and moved down one spot to 17th place, just one place below the league’s basement.

The hosts took control of the game early on as big man Joel Bolomboy did as he pleased inside while anemia Nedovic and Yago Dos Santos also scored to give Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad a commanding 48-33 lead at halftime. However, Oded Katash’s team went on a 17-0 run to begin the second had, as Tamir Blatt, Jaylen Hoard, Roman Sorkin and Levi Randolph all played a part in the comeback, however, Bolomboy steadied the ship together with Mike Daum and Rokas Giedraistis playing a part as well as Dos Santos to wrap-up the 9-point win.

Sorkin scored 21 points, Randolph added 16 points and Hoard scored 14 points in the loss. Bolomboy scored 17 points, Dos Santos put in 15 points and Nedovic scored 9 points in the win.

“Of course, Maccabi Tel Aviv as a traditional team wants to compete and be at the top of the Euroleague,” Katash said following the game. “It hasn’t been easy even in some of the simpler days and since the war began it’s been extremely difficult for the entire club. I think that everyone from the players to the staff and management understand the situation and I also believe that the fans do too.”

Levi Randolph spoke about how the team can improve going into the league game against Hapoel Jerusalem, “We have to go back and watch film and have a good practice and get back to the drawing board see how we can get better and trust the process.”

Rokas Jokubaitis also looked ahead to the Classico, “We are in a tough situation and everyone is exhausted after the Euroleague games because we are giving all of our energy. Losing games in the Euroleague is not easy and now with the Israeli league we have a chance to get back on track as we look at these games very seriously. We want to get the winning feeling and we are only looking at the win. We will rest a bit and fight for the win. Euroleague losses can’t get us down and we understand that it’s a very important game and we will give everything to win.”