Maccabi Ramat Gan downed Falco-Vulcano Szombathely 76-69 in Opava, Czechia to send their BCL Play In series to a win or go home game 3 next week in Hungary. With their backs against the wall, Shmulik Brenner’s team controlled game two throughout the entire matchup as veteran big man Amin Stevens with 25 points proved once again that he can rise to the occasion and help his team take a crucial win.

Marvin Clark, Benedek Varadi and Marcell Pongo scored for Falco while Amin Stevens, Benayahu Srur, Roberto Gallinat and Drew Crawford paced Maccabi Ramat Gan to 47-40 lead at halftime. Stevens continued to find the bottom of the basket while Kendale McCullum also found points but Matt Tiby, Zoltan Perl and Clark kept the game close, however, Stevens and McCullum kept scoring to notch the surprising win to send the series to a game three for a post in the Basketball Champions League Round of 16 group stage.

Stevens scored 25 points, McCullum put in 12 points and Srur scored 10 points in the win. Clark scored 19 points, Varadi added 15 points and Tiby scored 12 points in the loss.

“We love Opava and appreciate everyone here and we feel at home,” Brenner said. “The game is very important for us and we wanted to win. There are bigger things than basketball at home and we pray and hope that we will get our hostages back as soon as posable and are looking forward to getting good news. This was a huge game for us and we played tough as group. It wasn’t a great shooting night but we had to grind and work hard on the rebounds. We went to the paint and beat them 42-20 which was a huge key for us. We will be playing a decisive game in a hostile environment but we will be here for each other.”

“I want to congratulate Maccabi Ramat Gan as they fought and deserved to win the game,” Falco Head Coach Milos Konakov said. “I think we started the game very well in a playoff game that was alike a final. Awe had to be tough and we were very soft. We played better defense in the second half but when you score 69 points you can’t always win. We have to do everything in our power to win next week and get to the Top 16.”

The game MVP Amin Stevens spoke about the win, “I felt like we focussed a lot of the defensive end and that helped us get baskets on the offensive end. It was a do or die game and I wasn’t ready to go home.”

Benedek Varadi reflected on the game, “They did what they had to do and sometimes they were really tough in the paint and we have to finish stronger which we will do in the next game. This was a playoff game and now we will go back to our home and try to get into the Round of 16.”