The war no doubt has effected all parts of Israeli society and one of the industries that has been faced with some of the collateral damage so to speak is sports and in particular basketball. From league schedules being turned upside down to rosters being in constant flux and upheaval everything has gone into chaos so to speak.

One of the teams who has had their fair share of challenges is Maccabi Tel Aviv. When the war began and Hamas sent salvo after salvo of missiles towards Tel Aviv, the yellow-and-blue needed to figure out a plan of action and fast with their foreign players on edge and a Euroleague season that had just begun two days earlier.

Belgrade quickly became their home away from home for the foreseeable future as the club rented apartments for the players and decided not put them up in hotels in order to make them have the best conditions as possible in the circumstances that presented themselves.

Despite an unideal situation, Maccabi has done well in continental play sporting a 9-7 record thus far playing in an empty Pionor Arena for home games but now with Israeli games back the club has already had to face some challenges with their roster for those contests. The first against Bnei Herzliya saw four import players along with all of the Israelis return to the Holy Land and help head coach Oded Katash take the win but with a pair of games against Hapoel Haifa and Hapoel Beer Sheva none of the foreigners returned this time with their Israeli counterparts. This was due to one reason or another from the fear of the war, the Christmas holiday or that the club has reduced their contracted salaries die to the losses that they are incurring.

With no foreigners available, Maccabi needed to fill their roster with players from their youth department and others who had been loaned out to Leumit League teams. When the yellow-and-blue took to the court for their first home Israeli league game of the season there was no question that this was not a normal matchup no matter how much the surroundings seemed to be the same.

While the familiar faces of Jake Cohen, Roman Sorkin, Tamir Blatt, Rafi Menco and John Dibartolomeo were all on the Yad Eliyahu court, so were the likes of Omer Mayer who has been with the senior team the entire season thus far along with Shachar Doron, Roi Behar, Yaron Goldman, Ziv Berko and Oren Sahar making for quite an eclectic group.

Maccabi looked good out of the gate as both big men, Jake Cohen and Roman Sorkin getting balls inside while Omer Mayer hit a pair of jumpers, but Haifa found their stroke from deep with Amit Gershon, Mike McGuirl and Jon Davis all finding points from the outside. With no defense to be found early on from both squads, Sorkin kept eating up the inside but Davis answered McGuirl continued to score with ease to give the Carmel Reds a 31-24 lead after ten minutes of play.

Only 5,000 people were allowed inside the arena for the game due to Home Front Command regulations and right before tipoff Maccabi told the fans in the upper deck to move down to the lower bowl of the arena which made the facility look a bit more full but nowhere near what Yad Eliyahu would look like in a Euroleague game.

Sorkin kept chewing up the Haifa defense in the paint for more and more points, Davis, McGuirl and Gershon found the bucket at the other end, Rafi Menco drilled a pair from deep, Marvin Clark answered with points in the paint and Gershon kept hitting his shots from beyond the arc to keep Guy Goodes’s team in front 53-48 at halftime.

At the break Maccabi Tel Aviv personnel were saying how the most important thing is not so much the game, the result and who is or isn’t playing, but the fact that there is basketball back at Yad Eliyahu and that there were many children in attendance who most probably had not had an ounce of fun since that black Saturday on October 7th.

Menco began the third quarter with more points while both John Dibartolomeo and Tamir Blatt finally added their name to the scoresheet but McGuirl, Davis and Gershon just continued to go from downtown like 3-pointers were going out of style as Haifa continued to lead 79-70 after thirty minutes of action.

Maccabi made sure to treat those kids in the arena to a good time as they made sure to have fun with some great on court activities as well as tossing plenty of basketball and T-shirts into the crowd for them to take home as more smiles filled the building despite their team being down.

Sorkin, Dibartolomeo and Menco all started the final frame with points, Clark and Davis answered, Cohen answered Menco came out of a timeout on fire to cut the lead down to a pair of points, Davis went from the outside and inside with hands in his face for back-to-back buckets, Gershon went from deep as did McGuirl to wrap up the 104-96 road win.

While Sorkin with 35 points and Menco with 29 points set their Israeli league highs, it would be McGuirl’s 29 points, Davis’s 27 and Gershon’s 24 that would propel the Carmel reds to the victory.

“We knew Maccabi was coming in with a very short squad but I was also aware that they still had five excellent Israelis and that worried me as I am fairly new with Haifa,” Guy Goodes said after the game. “I knew it was an opportunity and I told the guys to take it and they did. I’m happy with the win but we have a lot of work and we have Holon on Friday.”

Goodes also referred to the situation that all of the teams are currently in, “There is no question that there is a lack of sportsmanship with the games as each team has their issues. If it’s Maccabi with their imports, Galil Elyon who can’t play in their arena up north or Jerusalem who didn’t have their import players for two games, the league needs to freeze relegation. However, it’s very important to begin to play again because it’s all of our work, from the journalists to the coaches, players and everyone else and just like any other industry, we had to return to action.”

Katash also spoke about the challenges that were presented in returning to play, “It’s a tough situation and it’s challenging to come into a game like this with the short roster especially after a double week. The guys here knew they had to play more and deal with both the physical and mental aspects. The roster is good enough to win the game and if the shooting percentages would have been different that could have been the case but it’s just not a simple situation since October 7th.”

“It’s very hard to look more than a few days ahead. I played some guys more than I had planned and I don’t know if this was the right decision or not but that’s what I felt I had to do. I understand the reason to return to play in the Israeli league and I can see why we want to get back to normal as best as we can. But situations like in this game or what Jerusalem had a few weeks ago are not ideal and we can’t really look at these things normally as we are at war we all have to deal with this situation.”

Maccabi has another game coming up on Monday night at Hapoel Beer Sheva and it will be a big question as to how many minutes some of the yellow-and-blue players will feature as some really played above and beyond what would be normal for them. With an important road Euroleague game on tap against Zalgiris in Lithuania on Thursday, Katash will need to be super careful with his squad and with those who will be counting on in continental play.

However, Rafi Menco said that he along with teammates aren’t going to rest too much and will want to give the best that they can no matter what the situation is, “We are all doing the best that we can by splitting up the minutes. We didn’t feel that we were the underdogs coming into this game and we won’t come into any game and feel that way with any roster. We will come into the game on Monday and do the best that we can.”