The Yellow & Blue secure an important home victory over the Russian squad. Bryant excelled, scoring 21 points. Friday: Maccabi heads out to Fenerbahce
Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv return to their winning ways in the EuroLeague beating Khimki Moscow 80:77 to improve their record to 15:8. In Scottie Wilbekin’s absence, Elijah Bryant came through leading all scorers with a EuroLeague high 21 points, Tyler Dorsey added 12 and Deni Avdija finished the game with 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists. The Yellow & Blue don’t have much time to rest as they’ll head out on the road to face Fenerbahce on Friday night.
Aaron Jackson, Elijah Bryant, Angelo Caloiaro, Quincy Acy, and Othello Hunter opened in Maccabi’s starting five. Janis Timma scored the first 5 points of the game, but Bryant responded on the other end with 5 of his own, 5:8. Angelo dished a pass to Acy who hit a corner three, but Timma recorded another three to keep the visitors on top, 9:13. Alexey Shved scored 5 consecutive points to boost Khimki’s lead up to 7, but Deni Avdija found a cutting Sandy Cohen who laid it in, and Hunter scored inside the paint to cut the advantage down to 3. The visitors scored 8 unanswered to close out the first quarter, 20:28 Khimki.
Sergey Karasev gave the blue’s a double-digit advantage, but from that point, Bryant and Jalen Reynolds took control, scoring 9 points for Maccabi, 31:33. Shved and Jonas Jerebko led Khimki to a 9:0 run, Avdija stopped the bleeding scoring the hosts last 5 points, 36:47 at halftime.
Bryant led the Yellow & Blue surge out of the locker room, scoring 7 of Maccabi’s 14 unanswered that gave the host’s a 48:47 advantage. The visitors kept a minimal edge throughout the quarter with points by Stefan Jovic, and Jerebko, however, Jackson sank a shot from deep that tied it up at 60:60, going into the final 10 minutes.
What a way to start the period, Jackson supplied a behind the back pass to Caloiaro who then found Tyler Dorsey for a corner three that followed it with another triple that gave the Yellow & Blue a two-point advantage. The lead passed from side to side, Shved hit a shot from deep to give the Russians a 74:76 advantage, but Dorsey with a clutch three from the other end put Maccabi on top by 1 with 1:22 to the final buzzer. Devin Booker scored one of two from the line, Bryant drove aggressively to the basket to record his 20th point of the night, 79:77. The Yellow & Blue fought until the final seconds, toughing it up on the defensive end as Bryant scored one from the line with 2 seconds left, 80:77. Moscow went to one last ball, but Shved traveled that gave the Yellow & Blue a hard-fought 80:77 victory over Khimki Moscow.
