Maccabi Tel Aviv registered its second victory in the top 16 by defeating Pau Orthez 74-70 at Nokia arena. A huge block by Will Bynum at the end boosted Maccabi and Derrick Sharp secured the unconvincing win from the line. Lior Eliyahu scored 13 of his 16 points in the first quarter, but the French team kept pace with Maccabi, 23-20. It took Maccabi more than 3 minutes to score in the second quarter, while Britton Johnsen kept scoring behind the arc (20 points in the first half) – 40-38 to Pau at halftime. Maccabi had a terrible start to the second half and Orthez went up 50-38. Simas Jasaitis scored 8 important points in this quarter and Maccabi finally showed up for the last 10 minutes with coordinated offense and some good minutes from Burstein, Vujcic and Sharp. Vujcic’s basket gave Maccabi a 64-63 advantage and Maccabi led the rest of the way although it was one of its poorer performances of the season. Maccabi: Eliyahu 16, Jasaitis 13, Vujcic 12, Sharp 11, Arnold 8, Bynum 6, Jeretin 5, Burstein 3. Orthez: Johnsen 20, Miles 15, Harisson 13, Greer 12, Wright 6, Mahinmi 2, Sanders 2.