Maccabi Tel Aviv fell in stunning fashion to Partizan Belgrade 88-79 after having been up by 24 points in the second quarter as their record moved to 12-9 on the season good for 6th place in the standings. The yellow-and-blue came flying out of the gates and went up 16-0 before the hosts responded as Lorenzo Brown and Roman Sorkin led the charge.

However, Zeljko Obradovic’s team started to chip away at the lead as James Nunnally punished his former team before being ejected with a second technical, while PJ Dozier scored in bunches as well to come all the way back and record the victory.

Wade Baldwin scored 19 points and Roman Sorkin added 14 points in the loss while Dozier scored 23 points and Nunnally ended with 20 points in the win.

“This wasn’t easy,” Katash began after the game. “They were aggressive in the third quarter and we lost our pace. It is what it is we missed some shots, the momentum changed and it’s another lesson for us. We need to be aggressive for the entire 40 minutes of play.”

Lorenzo Brown spoke about the devastating defeat, “We allowed the game to get away from us in the third quarter. They got into a groove and we lost control of the game. They pressed us every play in the third quarter and they got back into the game.”

Roman Sorkin also talked about the the third quarter from his point of view, “We didn’t play defense the way we needed to in the third quarter. This is a frustrating loss as we felt that we were better than them. But now we have to look ahead because this is already in the past and we have a long season in front of us.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv came flying out of the gate and pounced all over Partizan Belgrade as Lorenzo Brown, Josh Nebo and Roman Sorkin gave the yellow-and-blue a 16-0 before the hosts could even find the basket as Wade Baldwin, John Dibartolomeo and Antonius Cleveland all joined the party to give Oded Katash’s team a 29-11 lead after ten minutes of play.

Jasiel Rivero led off the second quarter with a pair of buckets while Cleveland, Baldwin and Sorkin joined the big man with points, James Nunnally countered with points a plenty but Tamir Blatt knocked down a pair of triples over the final 34 seconds of the half to five Maccabi a 52-36 advantage.

Nunnally and Bruno Caboclo started filling the basket as the third quarter got underway, Baldwin tried to stop the bleeding but Nunnally kept finding points as did Caoboclo and Zach LeDay to give Zeljko Obradovic’s team a lead for the first time in the game, but Baldwin came back with points at the buzzer to send the game into the final frame all knotted up at 67-67.

Alen Smailagic and Ognjen Jaramaz went from deep after Nunnally had been ejected due to a second technical, Sorkin tried to keep Maccabi afloat but Kevin Punter and PJ Dozier responded, Baldwin came back with points but it was too little too late as Partizan came all the way back from 24 points to take the win.