Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv defeated Ironi Nahariya in the third round of Winner League play, 84 – 78, thanks in part to a classic fourth quarter by Derrick Sharp. Omri Casspi was outstanding with 19 points. Watch the highlights! (Photography by Roi Idan)
By Amy Samin
Maccabi opened the game with head coach Efy Birenboim’s by now standard quintet of D’or Fischer and Lior Eliyahu under the basket, joined by Marcus Brown, Carlos Arroyo and Tal Burstein.
For Nahariya, head coach Yakov Gino surprisingly left Yogev Ohayon on the bench, starting instead with Nizan Hanuki, who was joined by Raviv Limonad, Ron Lewis, Aaron McGhee, and Tony Washam.
Fischer, who was in excellent form, opened the game for Maccabi with 4 straight points; a three-pointer by Burstein after some smooth Maccabi ball handling gave the home team a quick 7 – 2 lead over Nahariya.
Maccabi looked slick in the early minutes of the game; Fischer blocked a shot, then scored off an alley-oop from Brown to bring the home crowd to their feet.
Arroyo drained a three-pointer to bring the score to 12 – 7 in favor of Maccabi, but two quick fouls called on Fischer put him on the bench.
Washam kept his team in the game and prevented Maccabi from breaking ahead.
With four minutes left in the quarter, a shot from outside the arc by Lewis brought the score to 16 – 14.
A second three-pointer by Arroyo, who looked excellent in the first quarter, along with a steal and another basket, took the score up to 23 – 16 in Maccabi’s favor.
Another steal and an assist, this time by Dror Hagag in his first minutes in the game, plus a basket by Jason Williams, opened up a 9 point Maccabi lead.
Gino called a time out for Nahariya, and with Yaniv Green suffering a mild injury to his eye, Tre Simmons and Esteban Batista entered the game.
Maccabi started to struggle on offense near the end of the quarter, with missed shots and turnovers.
A basket by Lewis (10 points in the quarter) at the buzzer ended the quarter with the score 25 – 22, Maccabi.
Three-pointers scored by Arroyo and Casspi finally put a stop to a Nahariya 8 – 0 scoring run early in the second quarter, and three minutes into the quarter Maccabi had a 34 – 28 lead.
The visitors were able to come back, with Robert Rothbart helping to close the gap, and bringing the score to 39 – 39 with three minutes left in the half.
Maccabi had a hard time coalescing on offense; a few rushed shots by Arroyo had Efy sitting him down on the bench for a rest.
Casspi took charge of the offense, sinking a three-pointer and a basket to give Maccabi back the lead, 46 – 40 with a minute left in the half.
At the start of the third quarter, Maccabi looked to Eliyahu, who scored five straight points at the start of the second half.
On the other hand, Maccabi just didn’t seem to have things together defensively, especially in the paint.
A basket by McGhee three minutes into the quarter closed Maccabi’s lead to 2, 51 – 49.
Effective defense by Maccabi’s big men, especially Green, helped Maccabi extend their lead to 57 – 51, with four and a half minutes left in the quarter.
When Efy put team captain Derrick Sharp into the game with
When Sharp bulleted in a three-pointer, the fans went wild and the score went to 62 – 55.
Casspi kept the momentum going at the start of the fourth quarter, scoring two baskets to bring the Maccabi’s lead to 73 – 59.
Just when it seemed Maccabi was on the way to an easy victory, the rhythm of the game changed, with Nahariya scoring 6 straight and shrinking Maccabi’s lead to 75 – 69 with five and a half minutes left in the game.
As always, Sharp rose to the challenge, scoring two more three pointers and generating turnovers by the visitors that brought Maccabi’s lead back up to 80 – 69.
But the visitors refused to concede the game, and a 7 – 0 scoring run by Ohayon and Lewis closed the gap to 80 – 76 with a minute and a half remaining.
It looked like Nahariya might end up taking the game, but at the crucial time their players choked, and all that remained was for Maccabi to sew up the game from the free throw line.
Final score, Maccabi Tel Aviv 84, Nahariya 78.
Box Scores:
Maccabi: Casspi, 19 points; Arroyo and Eliyahu 13 points each; Fischer and Burstein (8 assists) 11 points each; Sharp 9 points; Williams and Green 4 points each.
Nahariya: McGhee and Lewis 21 points each; Washam 11 points; Ohayon 8 points.
“First of all, we won, and that’s what we play for,” concluded Maccabi head coach Efy Birenboim.
“We establish a lead, and then instead of cleaning up the court and building a huge double-digit lead, we don’t do that.
We don’t get where I want us to be; I hope that it will happen in time.
This game is now history.
We have a tough Euroleague game coming up on Thursday, and that’s what we need to prepare for now.
That will be a whole new game, a whole different match-up.
Even if we had won tonight by 30 points, I’m not sure that would have been enough.
Our players are experienced enough to know that that’s a whole different story.”
“It’s possible we didn’t win because we aren’t yet in shape,” said Nahariya head coach Yakov Gino.
“We didn’t do the little things near the end of the game.
I suppose with time the players will make fewer mistakes.
That’s part of the game.
Good things we can take from this game?
Good fighting by the team, and solid minutes from Robert Rothbart.
We started out with a lot of mistakes and turnovers, but we improved in those areas during the game.
I have good, versatile players on the team.
With time we will see more good things from them.
It’s just a matter of time.”
