By Amy Samin

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv kicked off the second round of the Lotto League season with an 82 – 61 victory over the team with the longest name in the league, Hapoel Altshuler Shacham Gilboa/Galil.
The win at Gan Ner Arena marked Maccabi’s third straight in Israeli League play.
Perkins was the leading scorer for Maccabi with 18 points, and Hendrix in a great game contributed 15 points and 7 rebounds.
Sofoklis Schortsanitis scored 14 points and the recently-injured Lior Eliyahu chipped in 12 points.
Chuck Eidson dished out 8 assists.

Maccabi’s starting five were Lior Eliyahu, Doron Perkins, Sofo Schortsanitis, Guy Pnini and Jeremy Pargo, who received a modest gift from his former teammates before the game.
Gilboa head coach Lior Lubin led off with Gal Mekel, Jack McClinton, Dagan Yivzori, Tyler Wilkerson and Ido Kozikaro.
The tip-off was delayed when Gilboa fans threw dozens of rolls of paper onto the court; one hit Sofo in the neck and he received treatment while the court was being cleaned.

The opening minutes of the first quarter saw the lead change hands several times.
After two and a half minutes the score was tied at 7.
A few minutes later, not much had changed; points by Perk (assist Pnini) tied things up at 11 with four minutes left in the period.
Eidson stole the ball and passed to Perk, who dished to Pnini for the layup, putting Maccabi up by two.
Points by Wilkerson quickly retied the score, but two three-pointers by Blu (assists Hendrix and Pargo) and free throws by Perk soon had Maccabi leading by eight, 21 – 13.
Co-captain Tal Burstein’s layup and one finished the quarter and put Maccabi ahead 24 – 16.

Hendrix started the second quarter with a good, old-fashioned slam dunk off an assist by Burstein, and quickly followed it with two more buckets; after two and a half minutes Maccabi led by thirteen, 30 – 17.
A steal plus layup by Eliyahu showed that you can’t keep a good man down; the forward finished the first half with ten points.
Hendrix scored yet again, and was joined by Eliyahu and Sofo with points in the paint.
Perkins drilled a long-range missile and followed it up with a coast-to-coast trip that made it 43 – 24 with just over two minutes left in the first half.
Maccabi continued to score at will, and Gilboa just couldn’t keep up.
At the half, the visitors led 53 – 28.

Maccabi continued to dominate in the third quarter.
A hook shot reminiscent of Nikola Vujcic by Sofo put Maccabi’s lead at thirty-one, 61 – 30 after three minutes.
The teams traded baskets in the middle of the period, but not many of them as Maccabi’s defense kept a tight hold on Gilboa’s shooters, most notably when Hendrix rejected a shot by McClinton with two and a half minutes left in the period.
Three more points by Hendrix in the closing seconds put the score at 72 – 42, Maccabi, at the end of three quarters.

The fourth quarter saw points by Eidson and Hendrix for Maccabi, and after three minutes the score was 76 – 47.
After a time out, Maccabi’s captain, Derrick Sharp entered the game, and contributed two points of the four Maccabi scored in the remainder of the period.
At the buzzer, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv had notched up another W in the Lotto League, 82 – 61 over Gilboa.

Box Scores:

Maccabi: Perkins 18 points, 4 assists, 1 steal; Hendrix 15 points, 7 rebounds; Schortsanitis 14 points, 4 rebounds; Eliyahu 12 points; Blu 8 points; Pnini 6 points, 4 rebounds; Burstein 3 points, 6 rebounds; Eidson 2 points, 8 assists; Sharp and Green 2 points each; Pargo 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals.

Maccabi head coach David Blatt said after the game, “We are a team that comes to every game ready to play.
For three periods we played aggressively and with determination.
We had 15 assists in the first quarter, which for many teams is a statistic for an entire game.
Sometimes you just have to focus on yourself, without looking at your opponent.”

“I’m not complaining,” the coach continued, “but the problem with the Final Four system is that there isn’t much value to the league.
There may be eight teams in the playoffs, but it all boils down to two games, and that lowers the value, which is a shame.
But that’s what we’ve got, and we’ll do our best there, as well.”

About Richard Hendrix the coach said, “I’m very pleased with Hendrix’s progress.
He’s an extremely important player.
The team has a rotation, and in the last couple of games he has made a terrific contribution.”

www.samintranslations.com