Maccabi summed up the “Pavlos Giannakopoulos” preseason tournament as they head back home. Sfairopoulos: “It was a beneficial tournament for us because we compete against top-level EuroLeague teams.” Cohen: “It was a good experience for us, we grew a lot as a team.”
“It was a beneficial tournament for us because we compete against top-level EuroLeague teams.” said coach Giannis Sfairopoulos. “I said after the win yesterday and I want to repeat it today, winning or losing isn’t as important. It’s more important to build our game, chemistry, learn from our mistakes and understand how to play in different situations.”
On the game against Milano: “I think we had a good game, then we missed a couple of lay-ups and open shots, from the other end we gave up some easy baskets. We need to learn from this to be more consistent and focused in the end. The conclusions are very positive. We are working in the right way, waiting for everybody to come back healthy to get to play some more time together.”
“I want to thank Panathinaikos for the invitation, as Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv has an excellent relationship with the club, we are delighted to participate in this tournament. We need to rest a day and get ready to play in the Winner cup.”
Othello Hunter explained his opinion about the tournament: “It was a great tournament, we got to play EuroLeague contenders, and I think it was good for us. With Scottie back, it seems everybody is kind of in the fold, we finally got to play everybody together.”
Jake Cohen talked about the experience playing in the tournament: “It was a good experience for us, we grew a lot as a team. We played some very high-level teams, got one really good win over Panathaniakos on their home court, that’s not something to overlook. We ran into another good team today, in the fourth we had a few mistakes here and there that we can fix but that’s what the preseason is all about.”
“It was a great tournament, fun to come out and to compete at the highest level against teams that we expect to be good this year.” Said Tarik Black after the game. “It was a good booster to our confidence and chemistry to show what we can do, and I hope we move forward with it.”
