Maccabi Defeats Caserta, 80 – 69

By Amy Samin

In their final practice game before the opening of the Israeli League season next week, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv faced off against Pepsi Caserta in the final of a practice tournament in Italy.
Perkins scored 17 points, Pargo had 15, and Hendrix scored 11.

Today, head coach David Blatt gave the nod to Jeremy Pargo, Richard Hendrix, Lior Eliyahu, Guy Pnini and Doron Perkins, the same quintet who led off the game on Sunday.
Caserta’s starting five included Tim Bowers, Jumaine Jones, Ebe Ere, Luca Garri and Łukasz Koszarek.
The Italians got off to a good start in the early minutes of the game, with points by Garri and Jones, taking a 6 – 2 lead, but the tempo soon slowed.
At the halfway mark in the period, the hosts held on to a 6 – 4 lead.
It was Perkins from the top of the key who put Maccabi in front, 13 – 12 with less than two minutes remaining in the quarter.
Yaniv Green scored off a nice bounce pass from Tal Burstein around a defender, and added a free throw to finish out the period, 16 – 12.

Derrick Sharp, who was celebrating his 39^th birthday, led off in the second quarter, along with David Blu, Pargo, Hendrix and Burstein.
Neither team found the basket in the first couple of minutes, although Caserta had help with that when Hendrix rejected a shot by the Italians which was followed by a 24 second violation.
Burstein got the scoring started again for Maccabi, who ended up scoring 12 unanswered points altogether; including five straight from Hendrix.
The score was 23 – 12, Maccabi, before Caserta was able to sink a shot.
The Italians made it back to within five, 25 – 20, but Maccabi held them at arm’s length.
Some great moves by Perkins put Maccabi back up by eight, 33 – 25, but in the end the half concluded with that lead cut to five, 35 – 30.

The second half got underway with Perkins, Hendrix, Pargo, Eliyahu and Chuck Eidson on the court for Maccabi.
Hendrix scored two quick buckets, the first off an assist from Eliyahu.
Perkins drained a three pointer from the right wing to put Maccabi up 42 – 30 after two minutes of play.
Maccabi’s defense made things tough for the Italians on the other end.
An acrobatic spin-and-shoot by Eliyahu set the score at 48 – 36.
Excellent hustle and a block by Hendrix and consecutive dunks by Pargo and Eliyahu (both off assists by Perkins) had even the Italian fans cheering, even though their team was down by sixteen, 52 – 36 to Maccabi.
Caserta responded by going on an 8 – 0 scoring run.
At the end of three periods Maccabi held on to an eight point lead, 55 – 47.

The fourth quarter got off to a good start for Maccabi, with Pargo, Perkins and Blu combining for ten points before Caserta could find the basket, giving Maccabi a comfortable lead, 65 – 47.
The terrific trio combined for another ten points including a fade-away by Blu and a miracle of an off-balance layup by Pargo.
Three straight shots from downtown by the Italians didn’t faze Pnini, who drilled a three of his own from the left corner to make it 78 – 63 with less than two minutes left in the game.
Caserta added a few more baskets to their totals, but it was Green who closed out the game with points off the glass, giving Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv an 80 – 69 victory over Pepsi Caserta.

Box Scores

Maccabi: Perkins 17 points; Pargo 15 points; Hendrix 11 points; Eliyahu 10 points; Eidson and Blu 8 points each; Green 6 points; Pnini 3 points; Burstein 2 points.

Team Stats

2 point range: 54%; 3 point range: 33%; 12 for 15 from the free throw line; rebounds: 41; assists: 13.

After the game, Maccabi head coach David Blatt said, “It was a good practice game, for both teams.
We had some ups and downs during the game which were the result of being tired and lack of focus, and also because the opponent we faced today was a better one.
We deserved the win; we dominated the game and won each quarter.
We’re two weeks away from being in good condition.
We need to be stronger on offense, but we played well on defense.”

“It kind of bothers me that we didn’t run the game the way we could have, and we didn’t put them out of the picture, but we can learn from this game and come away from it with a smile for the nice win and the several minutes of excellent basketball that we demonstrated.
Yesterday evening we had a really tough practice, maybe because of that we were a little tired today at the start of the game; I take the blame for that.
But that’s why we’re here, to work hard and improve.
This trip to Italy was another mini-camp, and now we’re going to come home a stronger team.”

“Regarding Schortsanitis, we’re aware of the eye problem he has and everything is under control.
It’s not something serious, but we didn’t want to risk him today.”

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