The Yellow & Blue concluded the first round of the EuroLeague with a loss in Menora Mivtachim Arena. Scottie Wilbekin’s 18 points weren’t enough against the opponent’s high percentages
Maccabi opened the game well and held the lead after the first quarter. But the momentum shifted in the second quarter, after Othello Hunter, who was questionable coming into the contest because of back spasms, got hurt in the eye and was ruled out for the rest of the game. From that point on, the Russians took control, especially in the paint, and the hosts couldn’t find answers.
Scottie Wilbekin led the Yellow & Blue scorers with 18 points, Tyler Dorsey contributed 13 points, as Ante Zizic and Elijah Bryant each added 10 points. Maccabi continues from here as they’ll host Hapoel Jerusalem on Thursday evening for the final game of 2020.
Scottie Wilbekin, Elijah Bryant, Yovel Zoosman, Angelo Caloiaro, and Ante Zizic started for Giannis Sfairopoulos’s squad. On the other end, Kevin Pangos, Mateusz Ponitka, Austin Hollins, Will Thomas, and Arturas Gudaitis opened for Xabi Pascual’s team.
The Yellow & Blue opened the game strong. Zizic recovered a Wilbekin miss for easy two points in the paint, later the Croatian big man dished an assist to the American guard for a corner triple as next possession, Zoosman knocked down a three from the same corner, 8:1. Pangos got it going for the visitors finding Thomas from deep, as he hit a tough three-pointer reducing the edge down to 1.
Wilbekin floated in two from mid-range, Othello Hunter came off the bench and dished a back door pass to Caloiaro, who laid it in, but Pangos kept Zenit in the thick of things scoring 8 of his team’s first 14 points, 18:14. Zoosman deflected a Pangos pass, led a fastbreak, and found the trailing Zizic, who slammed it down as Chris Jones beat the buzzer with a fadeaway mid-range jumper over Alex Poythress, 22:18.
Poythress converted back to back points in the paint, tying the contest at 24. Dorsey regained the hosts’ advantage, knocking down seven straight points with a triple and an acrobatic bucket converting for a three-point possession, 31:28 midway through the quarter.
Zenit grabbed its first lead as Andrey Zubkov and Ponitka led the Russians to a 4 point edge. Zizic drew a foul and converted two from the line, recording double-digit points at the end of the first half, 35:37.
Gudaitis opened the second half with back-to-back buckets in the paint, and Hollins hit a corner three, scoring seven unanswered points, 35:44. Wilbekin responded with a triple after a Sfairopoulos timeout, and Bryant scored seven straight points highlighted with a one-handed dunk. Still, Zenit kept working the ball inside as Hollins, Ponitka, and Gudaitis tallied points in high percentages opening a double-digit advantage, 43:56.
John DiBartolomeo knocked down a shot from deep, as he was fouled converting a four-point possession, and in the last play of the quarter dished an assist to Omri Casspi, who floated it in, 52:62.
Maccabi started the final 10 minutes with a 5:2 stretch, reducing the visitors edge down to single digits, which led to a Pascual timeout, 57:64. Poythress found an open lane and slammed it down, Dorsey hit his third shot from behind the arc, but Zubkov and Ponitka from mid-range retrieved a double-digit edge, 60:70. The Yellow & Blue made one final effort, stopping the visitors scoreless for over 3 minutes as DiBartolomeo drilled a corner three, and Wilbekin scored 4 points, 69:73.
Poythress and Ponitka each hit one of two from the charity strike as Jones drove to the bucket on Pangos and converted a three-point play cutting the edge down to 3, 72:75. Still, Zenit scored from the free-throw line in the final seconds, sealing the contest. The Russian squad beats Maccabi 72:78.
