Maccabi Tel Aviv captured the Winner Cup preseason tournament by defeating Hapoel Eilat 92-62 as James Nunnally earned MVP honors. Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad put the pedal to the metal to take a double digit after the first quarter on the strength of Nunnally’s sharp shooting while Keenan Evans and Roman Sorkin made sure to put the game out of reach. The Yellow & Blue will head into the Euroleague season on a high after taking home the trophy and will now prepare for Thursday night’s clash against Bayern Munich.
Nunnally led the way with 19 points (5/6 from 3), Sorkin added 16 points and Keenan Evans chipped in with 11 points in the win. Justin Patton scored 11 points while Bryon Allen and Ben Carter each scored 10 points in the defeat for Ariel Beit Halachmi’s team.
“We started the game really well and better than the last few games,” Maccabi coach Sfairpoulos said following the game. “Eilat is very well coached and they had been playing well and our players are still not in 100% game shape as they also played 3 games in five days. We were very good defensively again and we did a great job with Keenan Evans on Bryon Allen who was the best scorer which was the key. I’m very happy that we won this title, but we need to forget this title as fast as we can as we have the Euroleague and Israeli league coming up and we have to stay humble and improve our game.”

Keenan Evans – Photo Credit: Basket.co.il
“Maccabi put on a show and they were the better team,” Beit Halachmi stated. “It was tough to be able to play against that intensity, but overall we had a good week and the team is getting better and coming together.”

Jalen Reynolds – Photo Credit: Basket.co.il
Maccabi Tel Aviv jumped out to an early lead as Keenan Evans and James Nunnally did the damage from the outside while Jalen Reynolds and Roman Sorkin hit from the inside as Eilat tried to stay in the game with Bryon Allen, Ben Carter and Meron Ruina all scoring but the Yellow & Blue led 28-18 after ten minutes.

James Nunnally – Photo Credit: Basket.co.il
John Dibartolomeo nailed a triple from the corner but Justjn Patton did the same and then scored in the paint while Zuf Ben Moshe found points as well to cut the lead down to 5-points. But Evans, Reynolds, Nunnally and Sorkin all scored to bump the advantage up to 45-33 at halftime.

Keenan Evans – Photo Credit: Basket.co.il
The Yellow & Blue got right back to work in the third quarter with points by Scottie Wilbekin, Reynolds and Sorkin who also swatted away what should have been Patton points in the paint. Oz Blayzer and Ben Moshe traded 3-pointers, Romello White scored a pair of layups and Carter put points in as well to hang around but down 64-54 after thirty minutes.

Roman Sorkin – Photo Credit: Basket.co.il
Maccabi kept scoring to open the final frame as Sorkin, Caloiaro and Nunnally all put in points to pull away with a 30-point victory and take home the Winner Cup.
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