Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv celebrated Week 6 of Lotto League play with a 117 – 69 win over Barak Netanya, bringing their record to 6 – 0. Some deets: six players in double-figures, sixteen three-pointers with 64% shooting, and sensational defense. (photos Oded Karni, League Administration).
By Amy Samin
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv brought the best defense in Europe to the Lotto League, crushing Barak Netanya 117 – 69 at Nokia Arena.
Lior Eliyahu with 21 points (9 rebounds) and co-captain Tal Burstein with 17 led the list of six Maccabi players to score in double digits.
Maccabi’s players were 16 of 25 from outside the arc (64%) and dished out 28 assists – 9 of which came from Jeremy Pargo, who had a fantastic game.
Coach Blatt started the game with Guy Pnini, Lior Eliyahu, Jeremy Pargo, Sofo Schortsanitis, and Doron Perkins, while Netanya led off with Adrian Banks, Shmuel Brener, Romeo Travis, Elton Brown and Ori Ichaki.
Maccabi jumped to an early lead thanks to an 8 – 2 scoring run that included six straight points by Eliyahu.
Brener and Travis scored for Netanya but were quickly answered by a pair of threes from Pnini and Pargo which made it 14 – 7, Maccabi.
Burstein scored from downtown (assist Pargo) to put Maccabi up 19 – 11 at the halfway mark in the period.
Eliyahu tallied two more buckets, the second off an assist from Perk who went on to contribute two points of his own off a nice mid-range jumper which brought the score to 25 – 16.
Richard Hendrix was tough on defense, and Chuck Eidson continued his usual harassment of opponents with a steal.
The quarter ended with Maccabi leading by eight, 27 – 19.
Burstein opened the second quarter with eight straight points made up of a drive down an open lane and two three pointers off assists from Perk.
David Blu added points from the outer reaches of downtown to make it 38 – 21 after three and a half minutes.
Meanwhile, Maccabi’s defense kept Netanya to a mere two points until more than halfway through the period.
A slick three from the corner by Eidson was followed by a classic three from Sofo (two under the basket and one from the stripe), putting Maccabi up 44 – 29.
Perkins slammed down a huge block and Pnini scored in the paint, while a three-pointer from Blu on the right wing put Maccabi up by twenty, 51 – 31 with a minute and a half left in the half.
Hendrix contributed the final bucket for Maccabi in the period and the teams went into halftime with the score 53 – 35.
The third quarter got underway with a resounding dunk by Burstein followed by two straight threes by a switch-hitting Perkins, first from the right wing and then from the left. Maccabi continued their ironclad defense, forcing shot clock violations and turnovers on Netanya while upping their own steals average.
An emphatic stuff by Sofo on Ichaki led to a smooth reverse dunk by Perk at the other end, then Sofo threw down a dunk of his own off a dish from Eidson; halfway through the period Maccabi’s lead had swollen to 31, 69 – 38.
Maccabi’s defense kept up their choke hold on Brown, Banks and Co., keeping the visitors to only eleven points in the period while Blu scored six points in the closing minutes to make it 81 – 46 after three quarters.
Maccabi didn’t throttle down their game in the fourth quarter, and in less than a minute and a half Pargo, Blu and Hendrix had all scored (the latter’s dunk put Maccabi up by forty, 88 – 48).
Pargo scored two straight from outside the arc (bringing his total of three-pointers in the period to three) and Eliyahu dropped in a fade-away off the glass and one, which took Maccabi’s lead to a nice, even fifty points, 98 – 48 with six minutes left in the game.
Hendrix’s putback broke the century mark shortly thereafter.
Eliyahu had two straight buckets and an assist to Yaniv Green, who also added points from the free throw line (3 of 3).
With less than a minute and a half left, team captain Derrick Sharp, who played for most of the fourth quarter, scored one of his famed three-pointers from the left side, leaving it to Pnini to put the cherry on top of the cake this time with a three from the right corner which gave Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv a 117 – 69 win over Barak Netanya.
Box Scores
Maccabi: Eliyahu 21 points, 9 rebounds; Burstein 17 points; Pargo 16 points, 9 assists; Blu 14 points; Sofo 13 points, 7 rebounds; Pnini 8 points; Hendrix 7 points, 3 blocks;
Green 5 points; Sharp and Eidson 3 points each.
“There doesn’t need to be any letting-up, it’s a mental thing.
Once you decide to play hard for the whole game, it becomes a habit, and that’s how we’re playing at the moment,” said Maccabi head coach David Blatt after the game.
“It’s all habit, faith and the desire to stay committed.
Sofo did some amazing things on defense; no one could get into the paint.
People talk about his offense, but he was also outstanding on defense – he really shut them down.”
“In my opinion, both Hendrix and Burstein deserve to be in the starting line-up,” added Blatt.
“When they come into the game knowing how much they want to play, there’s no lessening in our ability.
When Eidson comes in for Pnini there’s no lessening in ability or motivation, and so we keep playing at the same level.
It’s an advantage that we have 11 solid players, and it could be we’ll see a 12th in the future.”
“Right now we have a pretty impressive string of wins, but we need to stay humble” said Lior Eliyahu, who led all scorers with 21 points.
“Our game on Thursday is a whole different story.
In recent years against Vitoria, Maccabi is 0 and 3.
They have players of a slightly different caliber.
Maybe right now they’re not doing too well in the Euroleague, but they’ll get to the Top 16, and that’s a format that you can get off to a slow start in and then go on to win.”
“We’re all satisfied, things worked out for us and we tried to stick with that,” said Jeremy Pargo, who finished with 16 points and 9 assists.
“Netanya came to the game, and they weren’t bad, but in the end we got the win.”
When asked what will happen in Thursday’s game against Caja Laboral, Pargo replied, “There’s always something to improve.”
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