Maccabi Tel Aviv BC kept their slim hopes alive for an invitation to the Euroleague’s Round of 16 that begins at the end of December by defeating in dominating fashion Bamberg 85-65. Sylven Landesberg led the way for the Yellow-and-Blue with 19 points going 5/7 from 3-point land while four other players finished in double figures for the victors.
Trevor Mbakwe ended the evening with 11 points and 9 rebounds, one short of a double-double and Guy Pnini went 3/3 from downtown to finish his night off with 11 points. All in all Maccabi went 16/25 for an incredible 64% from beyond the arc in a fantastic display of shooting.
With Taylor Rochestie running the offense, the point guard who dished out 7 assists was able to spread the floor to allow for Maccabi’s deep threats. Also a scoring machine himself, Rochestie scored 16 points of his own as coach Zan Tabak gave him the keys to run Maccabi’s game and has flourished without having to defer to an injured Jordan Farmar.
In arguably their best quarter of their best game of the year Maccabi took a 22-10 lead and never looked back. Leading 41-28 at the break by playing stifling defense, the Yellow-and-Blue took a commanding lead into the final quarter outscoring Bamberg 29-22 in the third quarter to run away with a 20 point victory.
Zan Tabak, Maccabi Tel Aviv’s coach said after the game: “I was really happy with the effort in the first half, we played really great basketball and competed well, and we kept them to a low score. In the second half, we relaxed when we got to a 20-point lead, the players were beginning to improvise and I didn’t like that. I’m very proud that we kept them to 28 points in the first half.”
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