Maccabi Tel Aviv dropped CSKA Moscow 84-75 to get back onto the winning track in Euroleague action. Scottie Wilbekin set the tone early for the Yellow & Blue as the star guard scored from the outside and on the inside while John DiBartolomeo, Keenan Evans and Khyri Thomas did the damage from the backcourt to hand Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad the victory in front of the hometown fans.

Dimitrios Itoudis’s team jumped out to an early 11-2 first quarter lead on triples galore by Marius Grigonis, Ivan Ukhov and Daniel Hackett but Maccabi came storming back with the same recipe from Wilbekin and company as they outscored the Russians 47-17 over the balance of the first half to take a 21-point advantage into the second half.

CSKA tried to cut the lead as the third quarter got underway but the Yellow & Blue responded thanks to Jalen Reynolds and DiBartolomeo while Iffe Lundberg got hot in the final frame along with big man Nikola Milutinov, Ante Zizic and Wilbekin held their own to close out the win.

Scottie Wilbekin led all scorers with 23 points, Ante Zizic chipped in with 14 points and Keenan Evans added 11 points in the win. Iffe Lundberg paced CSKA with 17 points while Nikola Milutinov scored 12 points and Marius Grigonis added 10 points in the loss.

“I am proud of my players,” Ioannis Sfairopoulos said. “I am proud of how they played the game and how they fought for every ball. I think we had an excellent game defensively and offensively. We deserved to win. From the beginning we had control of the game. We kept the rhythm and we played smart in the end and we deserved to win.”

“Besides the second quarter that we didn’t show up defensively, we were better in the second half,” Dimitrios Itoudis explained. “We played a tie in the third quarter. And we won the fourth overall. Overall it was plus 12 for us in the second half. It was late, but at least we showed character and we played the game. We didn’t give up. Congratulations, obviously, to Maccabi.”

Marius Grigonis, Ivan Ukhov and Daniel Hackett all went from deep and Nikola Milutinov scored as well to get the first quarter underway as CSKA Moscow jumped out to an 11-2 lead midway through the period. Ante Zizic scored a hook shot, Khyri Thomas put down a dunk off the baseline, John DiBartolomeo dialled up long distance, Scottie Wilbekin drilled a pair of triples, Joel Bolomboy scored a couple of buckets in the paint but the Yellow & Blue grabbed a 23-17 lead after ten minutes of play.

Jalen Reynolds began the second quarter with points, Jake Cohen and DiBartolomeo both went from downtown as Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad grabbed a 33-21 lead with 6:31 left in the frame. Grigonis went from deep, Thomas matched him at the other end, Zizic scored as well, Evans jammed the ball and Wilbekin went twice from beyond the arc to give Maccabi a 49-28 advantage at halftime.

Semen Antonov, Grigonis and Bolomboy got the third quarter started off with points in the paint, but Wilbekin drilled home a triple to break the CSKA run to begin the second half while Hackett and Ukhov went from deep to cut the lead to 56-42 midway through the frame. Angelo Caloiaro and Reynolds quickly scored to bump the advantage right back up, DiBartolomeo added a reverse layup as Maccabi kept their 21-point lead 67-46 after thirty minutes of action.

Iffe Lundberg hit a pair of 3-pointers and a floater in the paint to get the proceedings underway in the fourth quarter while Milutinov put down a dunk for a 10-0 CSKA run to begin the final frame, but Cohen drilled in a corner 3-ball and Evans put in a layup to keep Maccabi in front 72-56 with 6:09 remaining in regulation time. Milutinov scored in the paint, Wilbekin put in a baseline floater, Zizic added points but Lundberg and Ukhov kept scoring, however, Zizic scored inside again and again as Maccabi closed out the 9-point win.