Great play by Marcus Fizer and Morris earn a win for Maccabi against Jerusalem in the first game of the season 96-85.Thursday – Zibona at home.
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After an uneasy week on the Israeli basketball scene, the Nokia arena hosted the match-up between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem that ended in a yellow victory 96-85 with exceptional play by Marcus Fizer who scored 28 points and Terrence Morris with 19.
The game started with an important steal and basket by Cummings. Fizer added two before Jerusalem leveled with points by Pniny and Slaughter. A good few minutes of attacking play by Fizer with help from Eliyahu, put Maccabi in the lead at 16-11, but slack defense and two fouls had Jerusalem back in the game, 16-16 with 3 minutes to the end of the quarter. Fizer, Maccabi’s man in the first quarter got Morris into the swing of things by finding Morris under the loop time after time, for easy Alley-Oop dunks, extending Maccabi’s safe lead to 7 points at 27-20 at the buzzer.
Sharp started the second quarter the way he likes to – with a three, pushing the lead into double-digits. Arnold dug in under the basket with two baskets for Jerusalem but Batista and Morris did not let Jerusalem close the gap and forced Dan Shamir to time-out when the lead expanded to 34-24, 2 and a half minutes into the quarter.
The game came alive and even Sharon Shason, who previously missed a barrage of threes he had thrown, scored his first three. The three pointer did not help, Batista dunked tremendously and Cummings scored under the basket to increase the lead to its highest at 47-34 less than a minute to half time. Bowers scored with an Alley-Oop dunk in the final second that left the half time score at 47-36.
Jerusalem started the third quarter with aggressive play under the basket, Arnold and Slaughter scoring 5 consecutive points. Pniny continued to take advantage of the momentum with three from the corner, but Caspi and Fizer with a dunk right in front of Arnold, made sure that Jerusalem remained a marathon’s length behind, 53-46 four minutes into the third quarter. Maccabi continued with Fizer continuing to abuse Jerusalem’s defense. A dunk by Fizer was too much for Dan Shamir who called his team to the bench for a time-out, the scoreboard sporting a 59-46 yellow lead.
Maccabi could have continued to accelerate and increase the lead but chose to play defense. Arnold and his friends took good advantage of Maccabi’s slackened pace and scored under the basket to end the quarter at a minimal distance from Macabbi, 64-57 at the buzzer.
A three by Arnold at the start of the fourth quarter, making the board tally a 66-60, made it look like Jerusalem was going to continue closing the gap but Halperin was in form with a few minutes of excellent play. He snatched a ball, sunk a three and together with Garcia, who scored a three of his own, clocked a 8-0 run to a 74-61 lead, 2 and a half minutes to the end. Maccabi hoped this was the last effort they needed to win but Jerusalem did not give up. Shason scored a three, Arnold and Pniny twos, and the gap closed to 6 in Maccabi’s favor at 77-71.
Caspi put on the pressure with two important baskets. Jerusalem met no defense on the Maccabi side and stayed in the picture 83-77 with 3 minutes remaining. Katash smelled danger and told his players to play to Fizer under the basket. Carrying out Katash’s instructions, Fizer received the ball and scored 4 consecutive baskets totaling 9 points, all in all having scored 28 points. This was more than enough to defeat Jerusalem, with a score of 96-85.
