Maccabi Tel Aviv kept rolling along as they moved closer to clinching a postseason berth with a 111-80 blowout win over Bologna. The yellow-and-blue came out on fire to begin the first half as they grabbed a 15-4 lead and never looked back as seven players finished the game in double digits and everyone scored in the win. With the victory, Oded Katash’s 5th in a row, Maccabi moves to 18-13 on the season with three games to play as they look to punch their ticket to the playoffs when they face Milano on Thursday.

Bonzie Colson set the tone early with a pair from deep while Wade Baldwin and Lorenzo Brown scored at will against a porous Bologna defence as Maccabi ended the first half with a 24-4 run and a 29-point, 62-33 lead. Roman Sorkin and Josh Nebo scored easy buckets as did Darrun Hilliard in the second half as the hosts cruised to the win.

Hilliard led the scoring for Maccabi with 16 points, Brown added 14 points and 8 assists, Baldwin scored 14 points and 7 helpers, Sorkin scored 13 points, Nebo chipped in with 12 points and Colson scored 11 points in the win. Semi Oheleye scored 16 points and Awudu Abbas’s added 13 points in the loss.

“Great win for us, as a coach you never expect that kind of performance,” Katash said following the game. “It was almost a perfect half for us. Offensively and defensively, I’m very happy and the most important thing is that we passed the ball and had 38 assists with 6 turnovers, you can’t ask anything more than that.”

“Congrats to Maccabi, there were two completely different games,” Bologna coach Sergio Scariolo began. “They cancelled us from the floor and their pace was unsustainable. They arguably have the best backcourt of the competition, it’s hard to find a better one and this pace came from there. That have so many athletic and fast players and ten team follow their leaders.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv came charging out of the gate as Bonzie Colson hit a pair of triples while Jake Cohen nailed one as well plus fed Josh Nebo for a dunk to give the hosts a quick 15-4 lead midway through the first quarter. Semi Ojeleye and Daniel Hackett put in points for Bologna, Wade Baldwin and Lorenzo Brown got busy while Jarell Martin scored a couple of baskets to give Maccabi a 28-13 lead after ten minutes of play.

Ismael Bako, Marco Belinelli and Nico Mannion all found points for the visitors, but Roman Sorkin, Darrun Hilliard with a 4-point play, Brown with a 3-pointer and dunks by Nebo and Colson kept Oded Katash’s squad in front 45-31 with 5:05 remaining in the second quarter. Baldwin and Nebo scored while Martin and Colson went from deep to finish off a 24-4 run to take a 62-33 advantage into halftime.

Iffe Lundberg tried to cut down Maccabi’s 29-point lead at the start of the third quarter, but Brown and Baldwin along with Nebo played basketball to a science to increase the lead up to 77-40 midway through the period. Ojeleye and Tornike Shengelia put in points, Hilliard went for a pair from downtown as Sorkin scored inside to give the yellow-and-blue a 87-53 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Sorkin dunked to lead off the fourth quarter, Hilliard dialled up long distance as did Rafi Meno while Suleiman Braimoh and Iftach Ziv also scored to polish off the easy win.