Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Bologna 100-90 as their Euroleague record dropped to 7-6 as the yellow-and-blue split the double week with a victory over ASVEL Villeurbanne. Toko Shengelia and Marco Bellinelli’s play was too much for Lorenzo Brown and Wade Baldwin to overcome over the course of the 40 minutes as Oded Katash’s squad is still having trouble on the defensive end of the court having given up more than 90 points in 8 games this season.

Toko Shengelia scored early and often to begin the game while Lorenzo Brown and Wade Baldwin responded to stay in front after the first quarter 29-28. Marco Belinelli began to find the basket for Luca Banchi’s squad while Brown answered for Maccabi as the game was all knotted up at 49-49 at halftime.

Bologna’s veteran guard Daniel Hackett along with Shengelia and Belinelli opened up a lead for the hosts as Brown and Roman Sorkin tried to keep it close but went into they final frame down 78-72. Bonzie Colson and Brown cut down the advantage to 86-83 but Jaleen Smith and Shengelia made sure that Maccabi would get no closer as they raced off to the 10-point victory.

Brown paced Maccabi with 26 points, Baldwin added 20 points and Bonzie Colson scored 10 points in the loss. Shengelia scored 27 points, Belinelli chipped in with 22 points as Hackett scored 12 points in the win.

Next up for Maccabi will be a trip back to the Holy Land as they will begin their Israeli league campaign which will be followed up with three straight home away from home games slated for Belgrade over the next two weeks when they welcome Anadolu Efes, Red Star Belgrade and Baskonia.

“We can’t allow 100 points,” Maccabi Tel Aviv had coach Oded Katash began. “To win on the road we have to play better defense, even though it was a high tempo game and it was going to be high scoring. But we have to be more focussed on the little things like using fouls but we have to be more committed.”

Antonius Cleveland agreed with his coach, “This was a painful loss. We need to play better defense, it’s hard to win when you allow the opponent to score 100 points. As a team, we need to find the right energy on the defensive side for 40 minutes. I’m already looking forward to the next game so we can get back on the winning track.”

Bologna bench boss Luca Banchi spoke about the game form his point of view, “We had good continuity throughout the full 40 minutes and against such an opponent it was crucial for us to stay concentrated despite the adversity, the troubles. But we had another good game.”

The game MVP Toko Shengelia looked back at the keys to his team’s win, “It was all about increasing the lead and controlling the tempo and we did that step by step. Everybody stepped it up on defense and it was a great team effort. We’ve been in these situations before where we have been up and somehow let the game slip out of our hands. So we learned from our mistakes.”