Maccabi Tel Aviv just fell short at Real Madrid falling 106-101 in a thriller in Spain. Los Blancos were hitting on all cylinders from the get go with Mario Hezonja, Vincent Poirier and Dzanan Musa doing the damage. But Bonzie Colson, Wade Baldwin and James Webb did everything in their power to keep the yellow-and-blue close pulling to within just a few points as the clock wound down but it was not to be as the hosts took the victory.

Baldwin paced Maccabi with 28 points, Colson scored 25 points and Webb checked in with 18 points in the loss. Musa scored 19 points as Poirier and Hezonja each added 16 points a piece in the win.

“This game demanded a lot of energy,” Real Madrid coach Chus Mateo said. “They have a lot of offensive talent and the win was more difficult as they have high level players. I believe that there was a chance to break them for good but we did not do that. If we would have scored our open shots we could have, but Maccabi came back from 3-pointers and rebounding. It was difficult to win but we did.”

“We needed some extra on defense,” Oded Katash said following the game. “We needed to be a little more concentrated we can’t let them score over 100 points if we want to win the game, especially here. But it’s tough, it’s not easy against Real Madrid. To win here you need to play a complete game and we were not on the defensive side.”

Mario Hezonja, Vincent Poirier and Gabriel Deck scored points a plenty for Real Madrid to open up the first quarter while Wade Baldwin and Bonzie Colson responded for Maccabi Tel Aviv, but Los Blancos grabbed an early 29-18 lead after ten minutes of action. Dzanan Musa got busy in the second quarter as both Hezonja and Poirier kept scoring at will but the yellow-and-blue started chipping away at the lead with the due of Baldwin and Colson doing the damage to head into halftime down 52-45.

James Webb began to find the basket in the third quarter to start shaving down the lead, Roman Sorkin and Baldwin also scored to get to within just 3-points, but Fabien Causeur, Facundo Campazzo and Hezonja bumped the advantage back up to 80-73 after thirty minutes of action.

Lorenzo Brown and Sergio Rodriguez traded triples to get the final frame underway, while Musa scored as well, but Maccabi once again cut the lead down to just a pair of points 91-89 with baskets by Baldwin, Colson, Webb and Josh Nebo with 4:49 left in regulation time. Guerschon Yabusele and Poirier came right back with points, Colson drained a 3-pointer, Brown put in a 3-point play and Baldwin went from downtown but Hezonja hit his free throws and wrapped up the game.