Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv this evening won its fourth European Cup. In an awesome display they crushed Skipper Bologna 118-74 and thus broke several Euroleague records like the most points in a game and the biggest margin since the first final in 1958.
Maccabi ended the first quarter with a 31-13 in spite of the fact that Sarunas Jasikevicius played only five minutes before committing his third foul. Maccabi’s defense was at its best and at half time the score read 55-30 for the Yellows.
There was no letting off in the second half. Carried by the tremendous support from the fans, Pini Gershon’s boys ran to a 80-51 lead at the end of the third period and eventually won by 44 points and the Euroleague Championship.
Anthony Parker was voted MVP and Gur Shelef became the fourth Maccabi captain to lift the trophy. His predecessors were: Tal Brody (1977), Jim Boatwright (1981) & Nadav Henefeld (2001).
Maccabi had a great shooting night:69% FG, 61% in 3pts (14-23) and 83% in FT (20-24). The new champions also dominated the rebound (35-22), blocked 7 shots and dished out 31 assists.
MVP for the night and the Final Four was Anthony Parker with 21 pts, 4 rbds, 3 ass, 2 stls and 1 BS.
CSKA won third place with a 97-94 win over Montepaschi Siena.