Eliyahu: “We played strong and aggressive.”

By Amy Samin

Maccabi took another big step toward the Israeli Final Four Thursday night, defeating Ashkelon and putting the playoff series at 2 – 1.
One more win will put Maccabi in the Final Four.

“We’re already thinking a little about the Final Four,” said Lior Eliyahu, Maccabi’s top scorer in Thursday night’s game.
We played strong and aggressive, and we really hope to seal the deal in Ashkelon, though it will be tough.
It’s an equal rivalry, we’re not underestimating them and we’ll play with all our strength.”

Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon said, “We’re not in the Final Four yet, and there are some folks here who aren’t concentrating.
Could be it’s a good thing we’re going into a fourth game, because that shortens the amount of time until the start of the Final Four.
Even Chelsea didn’t know they wouldn’t make the final until the 93^rd minute in the game against Barcelona.
Anything can happen.”

When asked about Tal Burstein, who scored 11 points in Thursday’s game, and about the Israeli players in general, Gershon replied, “With all of the preparation, there are players on this team who don’t really understand what Maccabi is, and that’s also the story of the playoff.
Tal, who has won Israeli championships and Euroleague championships, gets it.
In Maccabi, if you’re having a bad game there’s someone who can step up and take your place.
Limonad has been playing well and now Tal’s in great shape – that’s the story.
A lot of Maccabi’s players are on the national team, and the truth is I don’t think they get enough respect.”

Omri Casspi said, “We played good defense, and the bottom line is we stopped them right where we wanted to.
We’ll keep playing at this level.
We want to win in Ashkelon and finish the series there.
We’ll continue to work to be in top form for the Final Four, but first of all we want to be focused on the game in Ashkelon.”

“With 23 turnovers, we had no chance at all of beating Maccabi,” complained Ashkelon head coach Robby Belinko.
“When we won here, we had only 10 turnovers.
That, together with catastrophic percentages, didn’t put us even close to being in a position to win the game.

It’s a series, and I think there’s time to get fired up and not just dwell on the past.”

Tre Kelley, who scored 12 for Ashkelon, added, “The crowd at Nokia today was definitely not the same as the crowd from two weeks ago.
We didn’t play well, and Maccabi played great basketball.
There’s not a lot of time until Sunday’s game, and we need first of all to play tough defense, get back to our own game, and get some momentum.
We need to put up some good scoring percentages early in the game.”