Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv was defeated 91-77 by EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in game 2 of the Top 8 series, which took place in Italy. Tyus led Maccabi’s scorers with 16 points, and Blu added 12 points. Game 3 will be on Monday in Tel Aviv.
By Amy Samin
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv was defeated 91-77 by EA7 Emporio Armani Milan in game 2 of the Top 8 series, which took place in Italy, and the series now stands at 1-1. Alex Tyus led Maccabi’s scorers with 16 points, David Blu added 12 points, and Ricky Hickman contributed 10 points. Game 3 will take place at 9:15 pm on Monday at Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv.
Maccabi’s starters for Game 2 were David Blu, Yogev Ohayon, Andrija ?i?i?, Ricky Hickman, and Devin Smith. The hosts opened strong and jumped to a 9-2 lead after two minutes. A pair of three pointers by Ohayon and Blu and a bucket and one by Sofo made it 14-11 halfway through the quarter. Maccabi kept up the pressure, and a perfect half-court alley oop pass by Tyrese Rice to Alex Tyus for the dunk put Maccabi within one, 16-15 with four minutes left in the period. Milan woke up and went on a 9-0 scoring run, and a dunk by Tyus was all Maccabi could manage before time ran out in the period; 25-17 to Milan.
Sylven Landesberg, who came into the game at the start of the second quarter, together with Guy Pnini made it a two point game, 25-23 after two and a half minutes. Milan responded with a string of buckets and, despite points by ?i?i? the hosts’ lead once again approached double figures. Rice and Pnini added points from the foul line and Tyus scored four, but the hosts continued to rack up points, and the teams went into the break with Maccabi trailing 47-34.
The momentum stayed with the home team as the third quarter got underway and their lead grew to 53-38 after three minutes. Points by Tyus and Blu weren’t enough, and Milan’s advantage swelled to seventeen, 58-41 halfway through the period. A foul by Milan and a technical on their coach led to points from the foul line by Rice and Hickman, narrowing Maccabi’s deficit slightly with two minutes on the clock. Points by Ingles and Blu cut the deficit to eight, but the quarter ended with the Italians leading 66-55.
Milan remained in control in the early minutes of the fourth quarter, running to 76-58 after three and a half minutes. A three pointer by Smith and a steal + dunk by Hickman made it 80-67 just past the five minute mark. Rice and Landesberg (steal + layup) made it a ten point game with less than four minutes to go, but this time Milan refused to allow the visitors to stage a comeback, and the game ended in a 91-77 defeat for Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv at the hands of Armani Milan.
