Maccabi Tel Aviv chalked up their 4th Euroleague win in a row as they defeated Bologna 77-67 in Belgrade, Serbia. The Italians took an early lead, but Rokas Jokubaitis quickly turned the tables for the yellow-and-blue as the Lithuanian guard along with Roman Sorkin, Jimmy Clark and Trevion Williams were unstoppable throughout the contest as they wrapped up a dominant victory.

Jokubaitis scored 19 points, Clark added 14 points, Sorkin put in 12 points while Williams recorded a 10 point and 10 rebound double-double in the win. Achille Polonara scored 15 points, Will Clyburn added 13 points and Ante Zizic scored 11 points in the loss.

“It wasn’t our best offensive game, both teams, I would say,” Maccabi Tel Aviv Head Coach Oded Katash said. “But besides the first 7-8 minutes we played great defensively, we changed all kinds of defenses, we tried to slow them down. We did a great job protecting our bigs, whom we missed, and we also did the last three quarters a great job on the board. I’m really happy for the players and we can’t take it for granted. Four wins in a row and we miss some players, hopefully with those wins we’ll get some confidence also for the Israeli league.”

“We started well, but we had problems with the turnovers and offensive rebounds,” Bologna Head Coach Dusko Ivanovic. “We didn’t have the mentality of the team and in the third quarter we played like losers, I don’t like the mentality of some of the players and this has to change. For me every second of one game is important and for some players all the game is not important, this is not possible.”

The game MVP Rokas Jokubatis spoke about the win, “It’s a little sad that we played like this at the end of the regular season, everyone is enjoying it and we are all happy. It’s important that we are beating good teams and 4 in a row is a good number in the Euroleague. We are playing for pride. For me, I am finally enjoying basketball again, it’s an amazing feeling as the Euroleague is a tough competition. It’s nice to have games like this and when the team wins it’s double amazing. I feel great and now let’s go to the next one.”

Roman Sorkin added, “I think we came out aggressive [in the second half], we played better defense, and we played our game. I think we didn’t start the game well. We didn’t foul or play aggressive, but we picked it up and got a win and that was important.”

“Like Rokas said, it’s kind of sad that we started playing late [with wins end of the season], but we’re a new team. We missed a lot of important pieces at the beginning. We’re happy that we’re making progress and we keep playing better and better each week and we just want to keep doing that. We have a long season domestically and we still want to be competitive in the Euroleague and play our best, so we’ll try to save it for the next games.”

Jimmy Clark also reflected on the game, “It was turning up the defensive intensity and that is what I was trying to do when I came in, bring more energy on defense. I just try to come in with a winning mindset and do what I can to contribute to the team and helping us win. That is what I am trying to do every game. It’s a good group of guys and you know that they put work in the whole week and get ready for the game. Just doing that with this group of guys is something special.”

Ante Zizic and Will Clyburn got to work early on for Bologna, Rokas Jokubaitis and Jimmy Clark countered for Maccabi Tel Aviv to stay close after the opening quarter, but points from Roman Sorkin, Rafi Menco and Jokubaitis sent the yellow-and-blue into halftime holding a 42-33 advantage.

Sorkin and Jokubaitis continued to score at will, Tornike Shengelia and Clyburn tried to keep the visitors close but points a plenty from Jimmy Clark and Trevion Williams put Oded Katash’s team in front 65-45 after thirty minutes of action. Williams and Sorkin scored for Maccabi Achille Polonara and Clyburn scored for Dusko Ivanovic’s team but Clark and Jokubaitis made sure that the yellow-and-blue would sew up the win.