Following great play by Halperin on his birthday, and with lots of help from Garcia, Maccabi beat Milano 91-76 to ensure one of the first two places in the group.
The trend continued into the second quarter. Milano blocked Maccabi with good defense, and Gallinari, who found his way to the basket time after time beat Maccabi on the attack. Maccabi continued with terrible play and did not score for a few long minutes, the score rising to 33-23 to the Italians after 2.5 minutes.
A worried Sherf called a time-out which did not change much at all, and Milano continued their double-digit lead 37-27 half way into the quarter. Lots of effort on the defense by all the players, led by Vujcic and Sharp, closed the gap a little to 41-38, 1.5 minutes to half-time. During the last minute, Sharp was injured and retired to the bench. An amazing assist from Bynum to Morris, during the last attack, ended with points for Maccabi, the score 46-
Maccabi returned to really play the ball at the start of the second-half. Halperin and Blumenthal scored threes after finding themselves unmarked on the 3 point line and leveled the score at 50-50 after two minutes. Gallinari reciprocated with a three of his own, making it clear that in order to win, Maccabi would have to work extremely hard. The game then did become a tight nerve-wracking battle. Halperin scored a two and three during some minutes of very good attacking play, and Maccabi took the lead 63-59, 3 minutes to the buzzer.
Gallinari tried to keep close to Maccabi but Milano looked a little tired and left Garcia free to score a three in the last seconds of the quarter, 71-65 to Maccabi.
Maccabi looked entangled during the attack at the start of the last quarter but luckily, the Italians were suffering from low shooting percentages. The ice finally broke with a backward assist from Vujcic (who else) to Garcia. Garcia thanked Nikola for the gesture by reciprocating with an assist in the next attack, increasing the lead to 75-67, 3 minutes from the quarter start.
A three and a two from the Garcia engine put Maccabi into a double-digit lead and Eliyahu, seeing his first minutes on court, added his name to the scoreboard, 82-70, 3.5 minutes to go. The Italians could not contend with Maccabi’s deep and dynamic bench that squeezed every drop of their energy. During the last minutes of the game, Maccabi increased the gap and the game ended with a yellow 91-76.
Maccabi: Halperin 24, Garcia 14, Morris 12 (7 rebounds), Vujcic 10 (4 assists), Batista 9 (10 rebounds), Fizer 4, Cummings 4 (10 assists), Bynum 3 (4 assists), Eliyahu 3, Sharp 2. Caspi played without scoring.
Milano: Gallinari 27, V 16, Sesay 16, Watson 9, Shaw 4, Booker 3, Gioivancchini 2.
