In their 2014-15 Euroleague season opener, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv defeated French team Limoges by a comfortable 92-76 margin. Five Maccabi players scored in double figures, with Pargo leading all scorers with 20 points and 9 assists. Haynes scored 15 points in his Nokia debut, while Smith had a double double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
By Amy Samin
In their 2014-15 Euroleague season opener, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv defeated French team Limoges by a comfortable 92-76 margin. Five Maccabi players scored in double figures, with Jeremy Pargo leading all scorers with 20 points and 9 assists. MarQuez Haynes, in his debut at Nokia Arena, scored 15 points, while Devin Smith was on fire with a double double of 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Starters for Maccabi were Yogev Ohayon, Devin Smith, Jeremy Pargo, Brian Randle, and Aleks Mari?. The opening minutes of the game were close, but a one-handed slam by Randle and two threes from the right corner by Smith made it 11-8. Sofo Schortsanitis came into the game and added some points, but Batista scored for Limoges, giving them the lead. Points from downtown by Pargo ended the quarter with Maccabi leading 21-19.
Sofo, Sylven Landesberg and Pargo (with a dazzling reverse layup) took Maccabi to 34-21 in the first three minutes of the second quarter. Finally Limoges succeeded in putting the brakes on Maccabi, setting the pace for the remainder of the half, and narrowing the gap to only three points. Smith continued to battle, and he and Pnini extended Maccabi’s lead to 44-37 as the teams went into the halftime break.
Randle and Haynes (great off-balance layup) opened up Maccabi’s lead as the third quarter got underway, but the French team fought their way back, tying the score at 48. After a few minutes with no points scored, Pnini and Haynes both sank triples to put Maccabi up 54-48 with just over three minutes on the clock. Haynes added another, huge three and Pargo scored a pair of layups and added several more points from the foul line, making it 64-54. A fast break went from Pargo down court to Pnini, who sent an alley oop to Haynes for the slam, then Haynes went on to sink a half court shot as the period ended, 69-55, Maccabi.
Pargo and Pnini kept Maccabi’s lead safe in the fourth quarter, with another perfect oop by the team captain ending in a dunk by Pargo. Pnini added points from the left corner, making it 76-62 after two and a half minutes. By the middle of the period the lead had grown to 81-64. Limoges managed to cut their deficit down to single digits, but Randle and Pargo combined to wrap things up with a 92-76 victory for Maccabi over Limoges.
