Maccabi Tel Aviv 79-63 Dinamo Sassari

Maccabi Tel Aviv bounced back from their first domestic defeat of the season with a relatively unconvincing 79-63 Euro League win over Dinamo Sassari. The hosts didn’t play to their best but still managed to overcome their weak Italian opponents.

Down by two points after the first quarter, Maccabi bounced back to make sure that wouldn’t be the case in the final three. Devin Smith put in a game best performance with 22 points and 7 rebounds while Trevor Mbakwe pulled down an impressive 15 rebounds.

Smith said after the match: “We came out and competed, and that’s important. We have a lot of new guys and everybody is starting to get it, what it takes and how you have to play here at Maccabi. You have to fight and give everything you got. And that’s what we did tonight.”

The Yellows now sit in fifth place after picking up their first win of the group stages and if they stand any chance of qualifying will need to pick up two more points when they travel to Germany next week to take on Brose Bamberg.

Galatasaray 87-79 Hapoel Jerusalem

Courtesy Eurocupbasketball.com

Hapoel Jerusalem sunk to the bottom of their Euro Cup section after losing 87-79 against Galatasaray in Istanbul. The host’s Sinan Guler had an excellent game with 19 points and 7 assists.

A bad first quarter cost the Reds in Turkey and despite playing well after that the side from Israel’s capital – led by Earl Rowland’s impressive haul of 18 points and 5 rebounds – couldn’t make a comeback.

Coach Danny Franco said: “Today was a good game. We were terrible in the first quarter, but after that we improved. We made some mistakes in the last quarter. We had a chance for the win, but we made critical mistakes. Every day we feel better. ”

Maccabi Rishon LeZion picked up a win in Estonia during their FIBA Europe Cup clash against Kalev/Cramo. The Israelis staged a comeback in the last 2 minutes to steal the game 92-81.