Maccabi Tel Aviv just got by Nes Ziona 85-81 thanks to Tamir Blatt’s money time bucket along with Levi Randolph’s brilliant play to notch the win in a season opening home game that was played in Beer Sheva due to a radius penalty. Tamir Blatt couldn’t miss from deep for Maccabi while Levi Randolph and Roman Sorkin found points as well to put the yellow-and-blue in front by double digits early on, but Darnell Edge from the outside along with Ricky Lindo and Itay Segev from the inside cut the lead down to 46-38 at halftime.

Lindo and Edge kept the pressure on as Yair Kravits and Bryce Brown scored as well to pull Amit Sherf’s team even at 60-60 by the end of the third quarter. But ket baskets by Randolph, John Dibartolomeo and Blatt who drilled home a clutch 3-pointer as time wound down helped Oded Katash’s team to the win.

Randolph paced Maccabi with 17 points, Blatt added 15 points and Jayden Hoard scored 14 points in the victory. Lindo scored 15 points, Edge chipped in with 13 points and Segev scored 12 points in the loss.

“I’m happy that we found a way to win the game as we had a short squad,” Maccabi Head Coach Oded Katash began. “It wasn’t easy to come here and bring our energy. We played better in the first half and for the majority of the minutes over the course of the game and we finished the healthy which is the most important thing for us. We have a very tough week ahead and we are missing a pair of guards but I can be content from what the players did to win the game.”

“To lose by a point here or there, you have look at the last moments of the game when we turned the ball over and missed shots,” Nes Ziona Head Coach Amit Sherf said. “But it was really the start of the game that hurt us. When Maccabi plays freely they are weak ahead of us but we brought aggressiveness in the second half and we stalked Maccabi. The game was in our hands, but we made a few mistakes. All in all it was the start of the game that did us in.”

John Dibartolomeo looked back at the game, “We got a little stagnant offensively and we overthought things so our play is not yet as fluid as we want. We have to understand where we are not get aheads of ourselves. The situation isn’t easy and we are not playing home games in both the Israeli league and Euroleague. We played here with a shorter roster than normal and these are things we just can’t control. We have to be ready to play on Tuesday against a talented EFES team. We just signed Saben Lee ahead of what is going to be one of the toughest weeks we will have this season.

Tzuf Ben Moshe looked back at the club’s second loss in as any games, “We were there for the entire 40 minutes, Maccabi is tough and it’s too bad we didn’t find a way to pull this game out. We have to be more aggressive from the start. We felt that we could have won our first two games and it was disappointing and they were very tough. But you don’t win the title by just playing these two games, we have to make sure that we find a way to win the games against the other teams.”

Levi Randolph gave a bump to Bryce Brown and put his shot off the backboard for a deuce to open up the game for Maccabi Tel Aviv, Tamir Blatt went from deep, Jaylen Hoard and Jake Cohen added easy deuces in the paint and Rafi Menco cut to the hoop uncontested for a layup to give the yellow-and-blue a quick 11-2 lead. Ricky Lindo put down a pair of dunks to get Nes Ziona into the game, Randolph came back with a 3-point play, Blatt pulled up on the break for a triple and then added another one while Omer Mayer hooked up with Roman Sorkin for points a plenty to give the hosts a 30-18 lead after ten minutes of play.

Menco hit a jumper to get the second quarter off and running, Darnell Edge went from deep at the other end, Bryce Brown scored his first points of the game, Hoard scored on the inside, Randolph found points on the outside, Edge scored from beyond the arc as Blatt added a long deuce to keep Oded Katash’s team in front 39-26 with 6:02 left in the half. Hoard went ofd the glass, Tzuf Ben Moshe went from deep while John Dibartolomeo did the same, Itay Segev used a soft touch for a basket and Jake Van Tubbergen added points as well but Maccabi went into halftime with a 46-38 advantage.

Blatt fed Hoard for an alleyoop to begin the third quarter, Menco drilled one from downtown, Segev responded, Yair Kravits went from deep and Lindo dunked to pull to within 2-points, 51-49 midway through the period. Brown dialled up long distance, Hoard scored inside, Randolph went from deep, Segev hit a turnaround and Mayer took the ball to the hoop as Nes Ziona knotted the score up at 60-60 after thirty minutes of action.

Dibartolomeo stole the ball and went in for an easy layup to get the fourth quarter underway, Edge knocked down a triple but Sorkin and Dibartolomeo hit one’s back-to-back at the other end, Kravits and Sorkin traded baskets as Maccabi took a 72-67 lead with five minutes remaining in regulation time. Lindo scored inside, Van Tubbergen put in a 3-point play, Tzuf Ben Moshe went from downtown, Randolph nailed a jumper, Edge hit a pair from the line but Blatt drilled home a triple to close out the game.