An amazing first quarter was enough this evening for Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv to beat Maccabi Givat Shmuel/Petah Tikva 81-59.
From 07-06 Maccabi ran 19-00 and ended the first period with a 26-08 lead. The hosts closed the gap to 40-27 but a three pointer by Saras made the score at half time 43-27.
As is most games lately, the third was Maccabi’s weakest quarter. Givat Shmuel came back to 55-45 and at the end of the period 58-45. The final period was very nervous from both sides. The players of Efi Birenbaum made it a 9 point game (62-53) when the coach jumped inside the court and his team was penalized with a technical foul. This stopped the momentum and Saras and Halperin took over and enabled Maccabi to win by 22 pts.
Sarunas Jasikevicius was the MVP with 21 pts in 75% FG (4-4 for 3 pts) and 6 assists.