Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Bologna 84-77 in a game that took place in the shadow of the pogrom that took paces against Israeli and Jewish Maccabi fans in Amsterdam. Oded Katash’s squad made a late push but it wasn’t enough to get the yellow-and-blue over the hump as their Euroleague record fell to 3-5 on the season. Former Maccabi center Ante Zizic and star forward Toko Shengelia did as they pleased for the hosts as Levi Randolph and John Dibartolomeo kept the game close down the stretch but an Alesaandro Pajola triple with half a minute left sealed the deal for Luca Banchi’s team.
Following the game Maccabi center Jasiel Rivero underwent an MRI and he was diagnosed with a small tear in his hamstring that will keep him out of action for 2-3 week and will be reevaluated next weekend.
Randolph scored 21 points, Rokas Jokubaitis added 10 points and Dibartolomeo chipped in with 9 points in the loss that saw both Wenyen Gabriel and David DeJulius make their Euroleague debuts. Shengelia scored 16 points and Zizic added 14 points in the win.
“We woke up this morning and heard what happened in Amsterdam,” Katash said. “It’s terrible for sports and far beyond sports as it concerns us as Israelis. We’re sorry that people went through such an event, it’s very serious and will probably affect all of us. Let’s hope for better days.”

Credit: Virtus Segafredo Bologna
The bench boss then spoke about the game that was, “It was a very intense game, it wasn’t easy. Even before the game we talked about Bologna having tools and they are better than their results as their losses were also close games. We didn’t think it was going to be easy, we fought but we also tired at some point. There was a little lack of coordination with two players, one who just joined us (DeJulius) and one (Saben Lee) that was not with us. We had to improvise the lineups a bit and we tried to do our best.”
“We were pretty solid and produced a better shot selection in the second half, while we also did an excellent job with the offensive rebounds,” Bologna head coach Luca Banchi said. “Everybody stepped up to finally get this first home win in the EuroLeague.”
Levi Randolph also looked back on the defeat, “I feel like we are getting better. We are getting our depth back and guys are getting healthy. We are starting to get more comfortable with a bigger roster but coach said it going to take time. The system is different and it’s going to take us learning it and getting comfortable with each other, hopefully things will get better soon. They are a very good team despite what their record is, the Euroleague has some very good players and any given night it can be any player. We have to trust the process.”

Rokas Jokubaitis – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman
Rokas Jokubaitis reflected on the loss, “Close game is not enough. We need to play better basketball, especially on defense. We need to win these games against the low table teams and I think we lost a great chance to win it and I think we need to improve in every aspect.”
“It’s a very big and very important win for us,” Zizic said in his post-game comments. “I just tried to get every ball on the rim and tonight was the night as I caught 7 offensive rebounds, but the most important thing is that the team did a great job. We held them [in check] defensively, we controlled most of the game and found our shots. It’s crucial to protect the home court and tonight we did it thanks to our fans. We had a bad start in the EuroLeague, but they keep getting behind us and pushing us.”
In Israeli league action, Hapoel Afula slammed Hapoel Gilboa Galil 96-62 as five players scored in double digits to get Ariel Beit Halachmi back onto the winning track. Sharon Avrahami’s team took a 18-15 lead after the first quarter but a pair of triples by Sandy Cohen in the second quarter put Afula in front as they did as they pleased from there on in to go up by 40 points at one point to put away the victory. Jalen Lecque scored 20 points, Armaan Franklin added 19 points while Cohen had 15 points in the win. Gur Lavie and Ish El-Amin scored 17 points each in the loss.
0 Comments