Maccabi Tel Aviv cruised to a 85-70 win over Hapoel Eilat as Lorenzo Brown orchestrated the offense with the big men Josh Nebo and Jasiel Rivero dominating the inside and John Dibartolomeo controlling the outside to chalk up the victory.

The yellow-and-blue came out firing on all cylinders with Dibartolomeo hitting from the outside while Nebo and Rivero found points on the inside as they built up a doubt digit advantage by halftime. Elijah Stewart, newcomer Jeremy Senglin and JaJuan Johnson tried to cut down the lead in the third quarter but Oded Katash’s crew bumped it right back up as the visitors never looked back to record their 9th Israeli league win in a row.

Nebo scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Rivero added 18 points and 9 boards, Dibartolomeo scored 13 points and Brown dished out 14 assists in the victory. Elijah Stewart scored 20 points while Johnson and Senglin scored 16 points a piece.

“It was a game that we didn’t have that much energy as games in Eilat are never simple,” Katash said. “We were missing two main guards and that slowed down the pace but we were there defensively and that helped us take the win. We were worried about this game with only 8 players due to injuries and we could have gotten into foul problems but we did some things tactically to make sure we could maintain the players.”

“Maccabi was aggressive,” Eilat coach Jurica Golemac began. “We knew that boxing out for them was important as they took 5 offensive boards and then hit 3-pointers from them. We had problems with their switching defense and their size and we tried to handle that but it is not easy. Jeremey Senglin who made his debut is a good shooter and will lead the team. He helped bring us back a couple of times but he was struggling as he was not yet familiar with the defense.”

Josh Nebo also spoke about the game, “I tried to come out and be focussed and play as hard as I can, do my job to the best of my abilities and I think it worked out. Playing here and getting a win, showcasing my talents to the home fans reminds me of where I started and it humbles me. The steps that I have taken and the hard work that I put in, it’s special to play here. It was challenging to play with a short roster and without some of our Israeli players. It was tough but we found the way.”

Lorenzo Brown and John Dibartolomeo went deep for Maccabi Tel Aviv while Jake Cohen and Josh Nebo also found points to get the game underway, Elijah Stewart and Jeremy Senglin responded for Hapoel Eilat but Bonzie Colson drilled home a triple to put the yellow-and-blue in front 20-17 after ten minutes of play.

Dibartolomeo and Joe Thomasson dialed up long distance to begin the second quarter, Nebo added a pair of baskets, JuJuan Johnson scored a pair from midrange and Sacar Anim pulled up for a duo from deep but Jasiel Rivero, Rafi Menco, Cohen, Nebo and Dibartolomeo all responded to send Oded Katash’s squad into halftime with a 49-34 advantage.

Thomasson led off the third quarter with a corner 3-ball, Brown added a deuce, Stewart, Senglin and Johnson answered to cut the lead down to 6-points, but Menco and Rivero came back with points to finish the period off with a 69-56 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Rivero and Senglen traded baskets to begin the fourth quarter, Colson dunked, Johnson scored inside and Ido Harel dropped a pair from deep, Brown, Colson and Nebo answered right back to close out the victory.