I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

How did Elijah do against Red Star? Oh, no too bad. He just scored 18 points in 22 minutes, went 2/4 from two, 3/5 from three, 5/5 from the line and grabbed 6 rebounds. However, the big number for Bryant was 14, yes 14. The BYU product scored 14 of Maccabi’s final 17 points to help the team chalk up the victory.

But it wasn’t just the 14/17 it was that the Yellow & Blue were down 66-64 when Bryant went totally off. After Othello Hunter put down two points to give Ioannis Sfairopoulos’s squad a 69-68 lead, Bryant drilled home a pair of triples with 3 minutes to go to put Maccabi up 75-70 to create separation and essentially sew up the win.

Bryant’s shooting and hot hand were analysed in the game preview and that the former Hapoel Eilat star was ready to take on more responsibility in crunch time which would take some of the pressure off of Scottie Wilbekin who has struggled this season in closing out games for Maccabi.

Wilbekin did play a big part in the win and nailed a triple to end the first quarter and gazed towards the press area where I was sitting after I had questioned him last week about the final shot. The Florida Gators guard led the team in scoring with decent percentages, but it was Bryant who was the MVP coming up big in money time and showed his coach that he is a legitimate late game option.

“Elijah was very important in the end,” explained Sfairopoulos. “To me it was very important, with the rotations we had, to have him fresh. He participated in like 22 minutes, but in the last period he was in the right momentum, fresh, and he made very good decisions, as well as in transitions, we found the right plays. He was crucial for the win.”

Bryant was critical in helping the club finally get back into the win column and it’s clear that if Maccabi wants to dig out of the hole that they are in with a 4-8 record, he’ll need to play a central role. However, both Sfairopoulos and Wilbekin will need to let go a bit more in order to accomplish that mission.

Captain John DiBartolomeo who made his Euroleague return after almost being out for a year due to injury, understands Bryant’s value to the team, “Elijah was amazing and he has improved his game and is a two way player. We always knew he was a great offensive player, but I’ve been impressed with his defense. He’s definitely a guy that we look for and he creates mismatches. We will look for him down the stretch as we will always look for the best option.”

Wilbekin also complimented his teammates while looking to use the victory as a way to beginning a winning streak, “We made enough plays and Elijah hit a big three in the end. I’m really excited to break this losing streak, so hopefully, we can build on this.”

As for building off of the victory, Maccabi has three road games coming up and the Yellow & Blue will be challenged to find a way to win at Baskonia (5-5), ASVEL 3-6), and Barcelona (8-2). Can the Yellow & Blue take two wins? They could, three would be stretching it but 2-1 would put them at 6-9. After a brutal start to the season, they’ve got to take it one game at a time and start chipping away at the teams in front of them in the standings and right now there are plenty of them.

Losing obviously takes a toll on everyone at Maccabi and winning the game against Red Star was a sigh of relief to halt not only a losing streak but falling in games that should have been wins, which of course has plenty of negative effects, “It is a very important win, it’s not easy psychologically to overcome these losses after good performances. During important parts of the game tonight we tried to stay focused and calm and not lose our concentration because that was the most important thing, to finish in the right way, make the right decisions in the end and this was what the players did. That’s why I want to congratulate all of them, for the win, first of all, but also for how they reacted in the last minutes.”

The bottom line for Maccabi is to keep turning that page and use the win as a springboard, “Our goal is to get better every day and we need to build on it,” said DiBartolomeo. “We’ve played a better brand of basketball in the past couple of games, which we can build on going forward.”

NOTES
I asked coach Sfairopoulos what Dragan Bender’s status was going forward as the contract signed was short term with a potential out date. The bench boss responded that he really doesn’t know the contract bit Bender has an out to go to the NBA while also not mentioning of the contract was extended for the balance of the season. If I had to guess, it would be that Bender will be heading back to the NBA sooner rather than later as camps open up and the season will soon be getting underway. Plus Omri Casspi played in his first Euroleague game in a year and put in 4 points in 10 aggressive minutes on the court,

Ante Zizic played only ten minutes while Hunter played over 30 which led me to ask if he was still injured from last week to which the coach answered “I was happy with Hunter and played him so I went with him instead of Ante Zizic.”

Speaking of Hunter, the big man had a tremendous game for Maccabi with 13 points and 10 rebounds in 30 minutes while going 6/7 from the floor. “Othello is experienced and athletic and he showed it with a great game,” said Sfairopoulos about his center.

Hunter himself also spoke about coming back into his own after a long stretch of what looked like frustrating games, “I was always myself; I don’t think anything changed. It’s just our team, we came together, we stuck with each other, started playing defense, back to what we do, I mean, I gave it all.”