Maccabi Tel Aviv wins first warmup game of preseason against Panathinaikos

By Ben Pask

Sep 17, 2024 | Holyland Hoops

Photo Credit: SAVVIDES PRESS

Maccabi Tel Aviv defeated Panathinaikos 88-75 in its second and final game of the “Neofytos Chandriotis” preseason tournament in Nicosia on Monday night after. The Yellow & Blue both started and finished the game strongly, winning the first and last periods by 8 points and 10 points respectively to get the win.

Roman Sorkin (18 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist), Rokas Jokubaitis (13 points, 3 rebounds ,4 assists and 1 blocked shot) and Levi Randolph (10 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal) led the scoring for Maccabi, while former Maccabi star Lorenzo Brown (14 points, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot), Omer Yurtseven (12 points, 5 rebounds and 1 steal) and another former Maccabi player Mathias Lessort (11 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist) top scored for the defending EuroLeague champions.

Rokas Jokubaitis – Photo Credit: SAVVIDES PRESS

“First, it’s always fun when you win,” Maccabi coach Oded Katash said after the game. “Like with the previous game, today as well we’ll take things, continue the process we’re in. We got Jaylen [Hoard] who helped us a lot. The game was a little different with a different pace, we responded a little from the game two days ago, a lot of defensive things. We have a lot of room for improvement.”

“Obviously, it was a lot of fun,” Jaylen Hoard (6 points, 1 assist, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot) said after his first game for Maccabi after switching from their cross-town rivals this summer. “It was an exciting game. For those who watched the game on TV, there were a lot of people in the gym, so it was exciting, it was my first preseason game. It’s good to get my legs moving and everything, but it was fun to play with the guys. We got our first win of the preseason, so it felt good today.”

Oded Katash – Photo Credit: SAVVIDES PRESS

“It was good competition, we played against Zo [Lorenzo Brown], who played here [at Maccabi] last year,” Hoard spoke of Panathinaikos. “We played against a lot of top EuroLeague guys, so to play against them was an honor honestly and it was good to get that matchup this early in the preseason.”

“I missed a couple of easy things today,” Hoard summed up his own personal performance, missing a dunk and going 1 of 3 from the field, “But as the games keep going and I get comfortable, I’ll make all of those and have some crazy dunks too.”

Maccabi will take on Panathinaikos again on Friday (18:30 IDT / 11:30 EDT) and then Anadolu Efes on Saturday (19:00 IDT / 12:00 EDT), with both games in Athens being their last European warmup games before the season begins.