Vujcic, who didn’t play against Holon, was back in the starting five and helped Halperin and Cummings two early baskets. Matan Naor hit a three pointer to give Nahariya a 12-11 lead and his second long range hit made it 21-17 towards the end of the quarter. Esteban Batista lost two balls in a row as Nahariya finished the first ten minutes with a 24-18 lead.

Batista came back more focused and helped Maccabi come back to 26-24 after 90 seconds, but Nahariya stayed focused from long range. Will Bynum and Alex Garcia stepped up with good minutes as Maccabi took the lead back, but the locals didn’t give up so soon and took a 39-38 lead. Tal Burstein hit a bucket with the buzzer to send the teams to the halftime break tied at 47-47.

Bynum followed by David Bluthenthal joined forces with Halperin and Maccabi climbed to a nine point lead, but Avi Soucar carried Nahariya back to the game, down 59-63. Bluthenthal hit again from long range but met Ashante Johnson at the other hand with the same weapon. Garcia and Omri Casspi from the line made it 64-70 entering the deciding quarter.

Nahariya came closer but Halperin made it an eight point game again. Before it was too late Soucar and Johnson once again loaded the locals on their backs and started the big run of the night. A 7-0 run made it just a single point game, 80-81, but Maccabi answered with four points in a row, which weren’t enough. Another six unanswered points completed a 13-4 run and at its end Maccabi was down 85-86. Vujcic gave Maccabi their last lead but saw Nahariya score with 30 seconds on the clock. Garcia missed a turn-around jumper, as the Northern team started their celebration.

Maccabi: Halperin 20 (8 as), Bluthenthal 20, Bynum 11 (4 as), Vujcic 11, Garcia 6, Batista 5, Morris 4 (4 as, 6 rbs), Burstein 4, Casspi 4, Cummings 2

Nahariya: Johnson 22, Hill 15, Pledger 11, Soucar 10, Peleg 10, Kozikaro 8, Naor 7, Gilchrist 3, Ocokoljic 2

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Coach Zvi Sherf: “We need to learn how to handle the bad results we had in the last two weeks. We had the lead in the closing minutes but made some bad defensive plays and that’s not what I’ve been expecting from my team.”

“We have no choice but to keep our heads up and get over the losses. It happens when a team isn’t playing well, but even if the players were thinking more about Madrid it’s not an excuse. We still have a lot of time before our flight to think how to bring the players back up. Nahariya played their best possible game. I’m not satisfied with what we did on court. Without a better defense we won’t have anything to sell.”

David Federman: “It will be silly of me to say I’m not worried about losing the championship title. Sadly we got used to lose in the league, and teams play better against us.”

Halperin: “When your team is losing, the individual numbers don’t matter. I made some critical mistakes in the last minutes but tomorrow is a new day. We have a critical weekend, and we want to make good results. It’s a pity we lost, because we wanted to go to Madrid with a better feeling.”