Maccabi Tel Aviv overwhelmed Hapoel Gilboa Galil 84-61 as the yellow-and-blue grabbed a double digit lead early and never looked back to record the 23-point win.
Roman Sorkin worked the inside to begin the first quarter while James Nunnally and John Dibartolomeo got busy on the outside for Maccabi Tel Aviv as Tyus Battle tried to keep Hapoel Gilboa Galil close but after ten minutes the yellow-and-blue held a 32-19 lead. Jalen Reynolds and Sorkin paced Avi Even’s team in the second quarter as they also held Guy Kaplan’s crew to just 5 points in the frame as Maccabi took a 48-24 advantage into halftime.
Gilboa went on a 7-0 run to start the third quarter as Sacha Killeya-Jones and Battle scored but Nunnally, and Williams found points to head into the fourth quarter up 69-42. Sorkin and Oz Blayzer scored to get the final period underway as Hen Halfon and Killeya-Jones responded for Gilboa but it wasn’t enough to dent Maccabi’s lead as the yellow-and-blue took the victory.
Nunnally scored 16 points, Sorkin added 15 points and DiBartolomeo chipped in with 10 points in the win. Battle scored 13 points and Killeya-Jones added 10 points in the loss.
“We had a good first half and built up a big lead,” Maccabi coach Avi Even began. “But the second half wasn’t that good. It’s not easy to go between the Israeli league and the Euroleague. But this is the life of a team where you have to ping pong between the two. There are a lot of games and we will make adjustments, but now it’s on to Barcelona.”
“Maccabi continued their momentum and right now they are the hottest team in Europe,” Gilboa bench boss Guy Kaplan said. “When we didn’t start sharp enough Maccabi took advantage of us and they took a big lead. When you play here it’s tougher than at home and we chased them all game long.”
Maccabi captain John DiBartolomeo also chimed in about the victory, “I’m happy how we came out and we were aggressive on both ends but we have to do that for the full 40 minutes. This is a team we didn’t take lightly and they beat us at their place. We were able to maintain our focus and play basketball which is what we enjoy.”
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