The “Yellows” opened their domestic competition with a win in the southern city of Eilat. DeShaun Thomas led the scorers with 16P as John DiBartolomeo added 14. Jackson and Cole who recovered from their injuries scored 9 & 6 accordingly
Coach Spahija opened the game
with: Jackson, John Di, Mashour, Bolden and Parakhouski. Both teams opened the game hesitantly with the score being tied at three apiece after three minutes. DiBartolomeo led the yellow and blue offense to a seven point lead 13-6. Bolden and Cole took it from there to make it a double digit lead, Berkovich score for Eilat and as the first quarter ended with Maccabi ahead 24-16.Cole opened the second quarter with scoring four points and making Eilat’s head coach call for a timeout as the scoreboard showed 31-20. Both teams came from the timeout struggling to score, Zoosman managed to increase the lead to 13 (39-26) however it was Eilat who had the last word as they’ve set the halftime score 41-30.
Three minutes into the third quarter Parakhouski and Mashour made it 45-30 but then Eilat woke up scoring the next four points which made coach Spahija call for a timeout. The southern team kept taking
the down the lead, and as the scoreboard showed 50-40 for the boys in yellow, Tyus and Thomas stopped the run made by Eilat and made it a 16 point game 56-40, however it was Afik Nissim scored for Eilat as the third quarter ended with Maccabi up 58-45.The fourth quarter started with both teams exchanging baskets, a
mini comeback led by Tucker and Rosario took down Maccabi’s lead to nine points (68-59) with just over four minutes left in the game, Maccabi kept its composure as Art Parakhouski and Zoosman brought Maccabi to shore with a double digit lead 73-59 from which Eilat wasn’t able to comeback, at the end 82-68 and a first win for Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv.
