The Yellow & Blue summarized the win over Zenit. Sfairopoulos: “I want to congratulate our players. It isn’t easy to play with ten players for so many games”
Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv overcame the cold Russian weather beating Zenit St. Petersburg 82:71 as part of the 14th fixture of the EuroLeague. The Yellow & Blue captured their fourth straight European win, improving their record to 10:4 on the season. Tyler Dorsey led the way with 17 points, Othello Hunter was excellent inside the paint scoring 15, and Elijah Bryant added 12 points. On Thursday: Panathinaikos comes into Menorah Mivtachim Arena.
“I want to congratulate our players, this is another big win. It isn’t easy to play with ten players for so many games, we have a lot of injuries that keeps the team with fewer solutions”, Said coach Giannis Sfairopoulos after the win. “However, the players show how committed they are, how much they fight, and how they play for their colleagues that aren’t available to help them. I’m delighted with how they played, their determination, and their fighting spirit throughout these past couple of weeks. “.
“I want to thank the owners because a big part of the win tonight belongs to them with us flying in here with a charter flight. They are doing the best to help us this season. I also want to thank our fans that followed the team to Russia to support Maccabi. With the win, I hope we gave them back all the effort they put on coming out to here to support us.
“I think keeping them off the glass, boxing out and securing the rebound were something we were struggling with”, Told Elijah Bryant about the emphasis the team had at halftime after a difficult first half. “In the second half, we locked in, got stops, took rebounds, and then were able to get out and run. When they sent five guys to the glass, it left them open for defensive transition, so we were able to go out, run, and guys started hitting shots”.
“It was a tough first half for us because they were on the offensive glass all night, we couldn’t get out on transition, and they got a lot of second-chance points”, Said Tyler Dorsey about the struggles in the first two quarters. “The starters started it off in the third, we from the bench came off, and we continued it. We limited them to one shot, we were able to get on transition and play our game on offense”.
The guard sent a message to the fans towards the game on Thursday: “We are going to keep protecting home court, we need everybody to come out, be loud. We have the best home-court advantage in the EuroLeague, so we need the fans for another big one against a top team. They are also a greek team, so that’s extra motivation for me”.
“Everybody did a great job fighting, we are all tired and hurting, but we are pushing through giving all we got, Said Scottie Wilbekin after the win. “In the second half, we picked up our energy level on defense, it started with Zoos (Yovel Zoosman) picking up the ball full court and trying to take advantage of their missed shots. We just wanted to come out here with a win, and we did that”.
