Devin Smith led Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv to a 70-66 victory over Unicaja Malaga in Spain, scoring 24 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. Randle added 12 points and 7 rebounds and a lot of fight on defense.
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By Amy Samin
Devin Smith led Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv to a 70-66 victory over Unicaja Malaga in Spain, scoring 24 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. Brian Randle added 12 points and 7 rebounds and a lot of fight on defense. Alex Tyus and Jeremy Pago added 8 points each. In his first game as team captain (taking over for the injured Guy Pnini), Yogev Ohayon did a great job running the game, serving up 5 assists.
Staters for Maccabi were Devin Smith, Brian Randle, Sofo Schortsanitis, MarQuez Haynes, and Yogev Ohayon. Maccabi got off to a great start, running to 12-3 halfway through the period on points by Randle, Sofo (assist Haynes), Haynes, and Alex Tyus. Pargo, Haynes, and Smith kept Maccabi’s lead comfortable, but Malaga woke up enough to narrow the gap to 21-13 as the period ended.
A beautiful dunk by Smith put Maccabi’s lead back in double digits as the second quarter got underway. Malaga responded, pulling within six in two minutes, 23-17. Sofo added points, but the Spaniards closed to 25-21 by the middle of the period. After a time out Maccabi came back more focused and reopened their lead to ten, 33-23 after a perfect alley oop from Pargo to Tyus for the slam and points by Randle and Pargo. Malaga closed to 35-29 as the half came to an end.
Randle continued to show excellent ability on both ends of the court, including a steal and dunk that made it 39-31 two and a half minutes into the third quarter. Pargo was slapped with a technical and went to the bench with four fouls, while Smith gave Maccabi their first three pointer of the game, 45-32 after four minutes. The Spaniards once again used the final minutes of the period to get back into the game, and the quarter ended with Maccabi up by four, 54-50.
A huge three by Smith as the final quarter got underway took the momentum away from Malaga., but not for long as the hosts steadily worked their way to a 58-57 lead with four minutes left in the game. Points in the paint by Tyus and a second technical called on the Spanish coach broke the home team’s run. Ohayon scored a crucial bucket from downtown that opened up a six point lead for Maccabi with two minutes on the clock, 66-60. Malaga couldn’t put together enough points to reclaim the lead and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv won the game 70-66.
