Maccabi Tel Aviv were thumped by Partizan Belgrade 98-75 as the yellow-and-blue were outplayed from the get go as the hosts grabbed a 27-12 first quarter lead and never looked back as their Euroleague record dropped to 5-14 on the season. Tamir Blatt led Oded Katash’s team with 16 points, John Dibartolomeo added 15 points and Jaylen Hoard chipped in with 12 points in the loss. Sterling Brown paced Zeljko Obradovic’s squad with 21 points, Brandon Davies put in 16 points and Duane Washington scored 13 points in the loss.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Katash said after the game. “Right from the beginning we weren’t there in any aspect. A very bad game and a very bad night for us, not what we expected.”      ‌

“We played a good game and I am very happy for my players and for our fans,” Obradovic said. “It was an excellent atmosphere again but I do have to say that Maccabi looks very tired as they are playing their home games a long way from home for a second successive season.”

Maccabi captain John Dibartolomeo spoke about his team’s performance, “We lost too many balls and you can’t do that in an Arena like this. They’re a very good team and it’s hard to play here. You have to play very well to win here and we didn’t do that, we allowed a lot of easy baskets.”

Game MVP Strerling Brown reflected on the win, “We knew we had to come out with a lot of energy because we also knew they were going to come out to play strong. Everybody contributed and got the job done. We have to keep going and keep persisting, stand together and take it game by game.”