Maccabi Tel Aviv were overwhelmed by Barcelona 92-71 as their Euroleague record dropped to 1-3 in the first game of a double week with Olympiacos up next on Thursday in Belgrade. In game that was never close from the outset as the yellow-and-blue fell behind 31-18 after the opening frame and never could find their rhythm as they fell behind by more than 30 points at times throughout the matchup.

Marcio Santos scored 18 points, Tamir Blatt added 15 points and Roman Sorkin scored 10 points in the loss while Willy Hernangomez scored 19 points as Myles Cale and Kevin Punter dropped 12 points a piece in a game that saw every one of Barcelona’s 12 players score at least a field goal.

“This is not the first time this season Barca played with such a terrific offense,” Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash began. “But what was surprising was their defense. They really played exceptionally well in the first half and they have a lot of talent and it was so tough to find a solution. It was a shock show the game started and we lost our way which is something that happens to new teams. We will have to learn as a team how to get out of such situations.

“I can take the second half which we won from this game but we have very little time and we have to move past this. We need to show our energy and we are obligated to do so to our fans as we now ready for our next game.”

Marcio Santos spoke about the game, “We need to go out there in the first minutes and set the tone and we allowed them to do that. We only did so in the 3rd quarter so we need to bring the energy and set the tone.”

Barcelona got busy early as young big man Sayon Keita who was making his Euroleague debut scored a couple of buckets, Kevin Punter found the bottom of the bucket while both Toko Shengelia and Tomas Satoransky went from downtown, Marcio Santos with a pair from deep tried to keep Maccabi Tel Aviv in the game but Myles Cale responded to keep Barcelona ahead 31-18 after ten minutes of play.

Dario Brizuela and Shengelia scored as did Cale with two more triples to bump the lead up to 46-26, Willy Hernangomez scored a pair of baskets, Jaylen Hoard scored the yellow-and-blue’s first field goal in the period with 1:01 remaining but more points from Punter, Will Clyburn and Hernangomez sent Barcelona into halftime holding a 60-32 lead.

Clyburn, Satoransky, Shengelia and Punter all scored to start off the third quarter, Lonnie Walker and Oshae Brissett countered as did Santos and TJ Leaf but Barcelona still led 73-48 after thirty minutes of action. Brizuelea, Hernangomez and Joel Parra scored while Roman Sorkin and Tamir Blatt knocked down their shots from deep for Maccabi but more points from Hernangomez closed out the win.