The Yellow & Blue suffer their first home loss this season. Wilbekin led all scorers with 21 points. Next Week: Khimki at home and Fenerbahce away
Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv came into this high-level matchup against Real Madrid victorious in all ten home EuroLeague games. However, the Yellow & Blue absorbed their first home loss of the season, 77:81 to Pablo Lasso’s squad. Maccabi forced a big comeback in the fourth quarter thanks to Scottie Wilbekin’s 21 points, but ran out of time as their record drops to 14:8.
Scottie Wilbekin, Elijah Bryant, Angelo Caloiaro, Quincy Acy, and Othello Hunter opened in Giannis Sfairopoulos’s starting five. Wilbekin registered Maccabi’s first 6 points of the game with two shots from deep while on the other end, Anthony Randolph scored Real’s first 5, 6:5. Randolph continued to tear it up, scoring 11 out of the 13 visitors points, as Hunter went to work inside, 15:13. The squad from Madrid took the advantage in the final minutes of the quarter, but Jalen Reynolds grabbed his own offensive rebound and tipped it in that cut down the lead to 2, 19:21 after 10 minutes.
Aaron Jackson tied it up with a floater, and Deni Avdija, with an excellent defensive play, drew an unsportsmanlike foul from Walter Tavares and hit both shots from the line that gave the Yellow & Blue a 23:21 lead. Avdija and Reynolds continued hosts 12:2 run that extended the advantage to 8. Jeffrey Taylor answered with 5 unanswered points, but Jake Cohen and Avdija responded on the other end, 36:28. Caloiaro dished an alley-oop to Amar’e Stoudemire for his first points in EuroLeague action, as Deck with 2 seconds left on the clock, scored two from the line, 38:36 Maccabi lead at halftime.
The Spanish squad started the second half with 4 straight points, but Acy connected from midrange to tie it up at 40. Randolph led a 9:0 Blancos run, as Bryant lobbed it up high to Hunter, who slammed it down over Tavares, 44:51. Wilbekin added 5 points from the line as Tavares scored Real’s last 3 points of the quarter, giving the visitors a 49:57 lead heading to the final quarter.
Maccabi opened the period with three three-pointers by Wilbekin and two from Cohen, who reduced the lead down to 1, 58:59. However, Real answered scoring 7 unanswered points to increase the lead back to 8. The momentum flipped with Wilbekin and Acy hitting back to back threes that decreased the visitor’s advantage to 2, 66:68. Facundo Campazzo took control late, scoring 7 straight points for the visitors that gave them an 8 point cushion. With 30 seconds left, Tyler Dorsey hit a shot from deep to minimize Real’s advantage down to 5, the next play, Bryant stole the ball, and Dorsey swished another three, 75:77 with 17 seconds left. In spit of the late comeback, Campazzo and Thompkins each hit their free throws, which sealed the deal, 77:81 Real.
