Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv tonight won in Nahariya its fourth game in the playoff semi finals, 83-73 vs Ironi Strauss Nahariya. It was Nahariya’s first home defeat this season vs an Israeli team.
The hosts, without the injured Sharon Sasson & Stevin Smith, found themselves 8-30 down at the end of the first quarter. But they recovered in the second and at half time Maccabi led 46-31. Nahariya continued its fight back in the third period and cut the deficit to three points (58-55). The score at the end of the quarter was 62-55. Maccabi ran 9-1 at the start of the final period to open a 71-56 lead. But Avi Ashkenazi’s boys refused to give up and with 2:45 min the score read 74-71. But this time Anthony Parker made sure that what happened in the first round of the regular season (Nahariya won 96-92), will not be repeated.
Maccabi shot only 69%FT and had too many (18) turnovers. Top player was Parker. He scored only 11 pts but pulled down 14 rbds, dished out 5 assists and made 4 steals.