Maccabi Tel Aviv brushed aside Zalgiris 85-57 in Euroleague action as the Yellow & Blue used a strong first half to put away the Lithuanian squad early. Ioannis Sfairpoulos’s team scored 53 points over the first twenty minutes which included a tremendous 20-0 run as the guard heavy lineup of Tyler Dorsey, Chris Jones, Elijah Bryant and Scottie Wilbekin seemed to score at will to dominate Martin Schiller’s side.

Dorsey scored 16 points, Jones added 15, Bryant and Wilbekin chipped in 10 points each while Dragan Bender put in 11 points in the win. Thomas Walkup led Zalgiris with 12 points as Marius Grigonis and Joffrey Lauvergne scored 11 points in the defeat.

Zalgiris got off to a quick start with baskets from Joffrey Lauvergne and Thomas Walkup but a pair of buckets by Elijah Bryant and triples by Angelo Caloiaro and Sandy Cohen gave Maccabi Tel Aviv a 10-7 lead midway through the first quarter. Marius Grigonis found the bottom of the basket but Chris Jones went off for 7 quick points at the other end while Dragan Bender drained a 3-pointer to end the frame to give the Yellow & Blue a 24-14 advantage after ten minutes.

Bender began the second quarter just how he finished the last with a triple and Oz Blayzer did the same to bump the lead up to 32-14 for coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad with 7:57 left in the half. Tyler Dorsey added a layup and went from deep to give Maccabi a 20-0 run as Lukas Lekavicius and Lauvergne finally put up points for the visitors but the hosts stayed in front 41-18 with 4:30 to go. Scottie Wilbekin got on the stat sheet with a dead center 3-pointer has so did Dorsey as Ante Zizic also got into the action with a layup for his first points as Maccabi headed into the lockerroom up 53-23.

Caloiaro started putting up points as did Bryant while Lauvergne and Grigonis did the same at the other end of the court but a Zizic put down and more points by Jones gave Maccabi a 65-31 advantage midway through the third quarter. Jones again found nothing but net while Grigonis and Lekavicius did the same but Bender drilled home a triple to give Maccabi a 72-44 lead after thirty minutes of play.

Zizic got things off with a dunk while Walkup scored at the other end Dorsey and Wilbekin scored in a 4th quarter that was garbage time galore as Maccabi took home the 28 point victory.