Maccabi Tel Aviv came up short at Valencia 94-83 as the yellow-and-blue couldn’t hold on the lead that they held over the course of three quarters as Jean Montero and Kameron Taylor helped the hosts complete the fourth quarter comeback.

Maccabi Tel Aviv got off to a fast start as Jaylen Hoard, Iffe Lundberg, Will Rayman and TJ Leaf all scored for the yellow-and-blue while Jean Montero, Omari Moore and Jaime Pradilla answered for Valencia but Oded Katash’s crew grabbed a 27-21 lead after ten minutes of play. Lundberg and Leaf continued to find the bottom of the basket, while Kameron Taylor and Josep Puerto came back with points but Maccabi stayed in front 50-44 at halftime.

Montero and Taylor kept scoring for the hosts as the second half began while Hoard and Jimmy Clark countered but Valencia closed the gap by the end of the third quarter to just two-points, 68-66. Neal Sako began to make a difference for Pedro Martinez’s team in the final frame while Clark scored for Maccabi but a 4-point play by Taylor along with baskets by Badio Brancou and Montero closed out the victory for Valencia.

Leaf scored 14 points while Clark and Lundberg scored 12 points a piece in the defeat while Montero scored 19 points, Taylor added 17 points as Moore and Sako each scored 12 points in the win.

“We knew that we had to be focused for forty minutes against Valencia,” Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash began. “We played better in the first half and played the right way offensively. We were there for three quarters but you have to play forty minutes and stick to the game plan. We lost our minds a bit in the fourth quarter for a few minutes and we lost the game.”