The Yellow & Blue drop to 2-4 on the EuroLeague season after a home loss to the Turkish squad. Wilbekin stood out with 23 points, Zizic added 11 points and 10 rebounds
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv took the loss Thursday 65:75 to Fenerbahce on the 6th EuroLeague fixture of the 2020/21 season. The Yellow & Blue opened the game wonderfully, but the visitors dropped 11 triples on the evening as Ali Muhammed led the Turkish charge, shifting the momentum and the score to a Fenerbahce victory. Scottie Wilbekin ended the night as the top scorer with 23 points, Ante Zizic tallied 11 points, and 10 rebounds, as Jones added 10 points.
Scottie Wilbekin, Elijah Bryant, Angelo Caloiaro, Dragan Bender, and Ante Zizic opened in Giannis Sfairopoulos’s starting five. On the other end, Lorenzo Brown, Nando De Colo, Edgaras Ulanovas, Ahmet Duverioglu, and Jan Vesely began for Kokoskov’s squad.
After a scoreless minute, the first half of the quarter was in Maccabi’s control. Bender drilled a triple for the first points of the night, Zizic recovered two offensive boards for easy scores, and Bryant added four inside for a quick 13:4 advantage.
Wilbekin tallied seven consecutive points for the hosts, but Ali Muhammed responded with back to back three’s keeping the visitors within striking distance, 20:16. Ulanovas and Wilbekin exchanged buckets to end the first 10 minutes, 22:18.
The Turkish momentum extended as Muhammed and Melih Mahmutoglu kept producing damage from deep, tying it at 24 aside. Jarrel Eddie gave the visitors their first lead of the night, but Oz Blayzer answered with a triple, starting a 7:0 run, 31:26. De Colo and Vesely reduced the edge down to 1, the Yellow & Blue worked Zizic inside, and Wilbekin beat the buzzer to close out the half with a 38:35 Maccabi advantage.
The tight clash continued in the second half. Brown counted his first two of the night as Wilbekin scored his 18th on the other end, keeping a 5 point lead, 45:40. The Yellow & Blue side had trouble finding the net as Brown led Fenerbahce to a 9:2 run, 47:49. Jones scored four, giving Maccabi the lead, but De Colo totaled 5 points from the free-throw line, managing a 2 point visitors advantage heading into the fourth quarter, 54:56.
Mahmutoglu and Muhammed added from deep as part of a 9:0 Fernerbahce stretch going back to the end of the third, which led to a Giannis Sfairopoulos timeout, 54:62. Bryant stopped the bleeding with a triple, but the Turkish squad worked Dyshawn Pierre in the paint, who scored five straight points giving the visitors a double-digit advantage midway through the 4th, 58:69.
Wilbekin cut the lead down to 6, hitting five consecutive points. Vesely scored inside, Zizic answered on the other end, but De Colo drilled a deep two that sealed the deal, 65:73. Pierre added two from the charity strike, which granted the final score. Fenerbahce beat Maccabi 75:65.
