The Yellow & Blue stay undefeated at home in the domestic league as Dorsey (19 points), and Hunter (16 points) led the way to improve their record to 18:1. Next opponent: Friday at Valencia
Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv broke a 61 tie early in the fourth quarter to finish the game on a 14:3 run on it’s way to their 14th straight league win over Maccabi Rishon LeZion, 75:64. Tyler Dorsey came off the bench and led all scorers with 19 points adding to that 5 assists and 5 rebounds, Othello Hunter dominated in the paint scoring 16 points while grabbing 9 rebounds as Deni Avidja, who wasn’t 100% healthy coming into the game, finished the night with 12 points and 7 rebounds. On Friday night, the Yellow & Blue return to EuroLeague action as they head out to Spain to face Valencia.
Maccabi opened with Aaron Jackson, Scottie Wilbekin, Elijah Bryant, Jake Cohen, and Othello Hunter in their starting five. Wilbekin lobbed an alley-oop pass to Hunter, who slammed it down for the hosts first two points as he and Bryant were the Yellow & Blue’s points producers early, 8:5. On the other end, Oz Blayzer led the visitors to 5 unanswered points, which gave them their first lead of the night, 8:10. Maccabi responded with a 10:0 run as Tyler Dorsey scored 5, 21:12. After the first 10 minutes, the Yellow & Blue led 24:16.
Deni Avdija and Dorsey gave the hosts their first double-digit of the night, 29:18. James Kelly scored eight consecutive points for Rishon to cut the lead down to 4, but Avdija reacted with 5 of his own that gave Maccabi a 42:35 advantage at halftime.
The Yellow & Blue started the second half strong opening a 13 point lead, but the hosts scored 10 consecutive points that decreased the Maccabi advantage down to 3, 51:48. Hunter and Amar’e Stoudemire continued to dominate in the paint while Blayzer and Alex Hamilton kept the oranges in striking distance going into the final quarter, 59:55.
Hamilton and Kelly tied the game up at 61 early in the fourth. From that point on, Maccabi ramped up the intensity allowing 3 points in the final 6:14 minutes. Hunter and Jake Cohen controlled inside while Dorsey led the Yellow & Blue with 19 points on its way to a 75:64 victory over Rishon LeZion.
