By Amy Samin

Coach David Blatt introduced a new starting lineup for Maccabi, leading off with Milan Mačvan, Jeremy Pargo, Lior Eliyahu, Chuck Eidson, and Doron Perkins. Caja’s starting five were Marcelinho Huertas, Mirza Teletovic, Fernando San Emeterio, Brad Oleson, and Stanko Barac. Maccabi took a 5 – 2 lead early in the first quarter off points from Perk and Eliyahu, but a three-pointer by San Emeterio gave the hosts a 7 – 5 lead after three and a half minutes. Maccabi tied the score off a dunk by Pargo, and then again on points from Sofo, but Barac and company were on a roll. Eidson scored from mid-range and was answered by Barac and David Logan. With less than a minute remaining in the period, the Spaniard’s lead had grown to 21 – 11. Eidson took a bite out of that lead with a layup and one, but the quarter ended with the home team leading 26 – 14.

Logan scored at the start of the second quarter to extend the lead, but points by Perk and Richard Hendrix narrowed the gap to eleven after two and a half minutes. Eidson and Eliyahu scored, and Hendrix continued to dominate under the basket. With four minutes left in the half, Maccabi had cut the deficit to a single digit, 35 – 26. Teletovic scored from three-point range and Esteban Batista from the charity stripe, to put Caja up 42 – 28 with two and a half minutes on the clock. Perk scored off a steal/assist from Eidson, and Pargo delivered one of his stunning drives to the basket, but points from San Emeterio as time ran out set the score at 46 – 32 as the teams went into the halftime break.

A put-back and a dunk (assist Pargo) by Hendrix in the first minutes of the second half kicked off a 10 – 1 scoring run for Maccabi that also included points by Eidson and Eliyahu, excellent defense by Pargo, and another dunk from Hendrix (assist Pargo) that brought the score to 47 – 42. Logan stopped Maccabi’s run with a three-pointer near the halfway mark in the period, but Hendrix scored yet again to keep Maccabi close. Points by Eliyahu and Sofo (from the foul line) were answered by five quick points from Caja Laboral. David Blu scored under the basket (assist Sofo), then followed that with a layup off a behind-the-back assist by Pargo to make it 58 – 52 with less than two minutes left in the third quarter. Barac scored from two-point range, then Pargo dropped in a slick three from the top of the arc to make it 60 – 55 with twenty seconds left in the period. Barac scored from the foul line to end the quarter with the hosts still leading, 61 – 55.

A bucket by Eidson at the start of the fourth quarter made for the only points Maccabi scored in the first five minutes of the period. Barac and Pau Ribas, meanwhile, took the home team’s lead to 69 – 57. Guy Pnini scored one of his classic clutch threes from the corner to put a stop to the Spanish run, 69 – 60. A layup by Perk and points by Hendrix (in his best game of the season so far) brought Maccabi within five points with three and a half minutes remaining in the game, 69 – 64. Caja Laboral put a stop to Maccabi’s run by going on a 7 – 0 run of their own, rebuilding their lead to 76 – 64. Points by Eliyahu that included a steal plus dunk, and a three from Blu at the top of the arc were not enough to pull out the win, and Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv fell to Caja Laboral 76 – 70 in the first game of the teams’ best of five series. The next game will take place on Thursday (24 March) in the Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria.

Box Score:

Maccabi: Hendrix 16 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocks; Eliyahu 12 points, 6 rebounds; Eidson 11 points; Perkins 10 points, 9 rebounds; Pargo 7 points, 4 assists; Blu 7 points; Schortsanitis 4 points; Pnini 3 points.

“We did not have a good first quarter, and that was one of the keys,” said Maccabi’s head coach David Blatt after the game. “Our shooting percentage really hurt us, though we took 17 more shots than they did. The ball simply didn’t go in, especially at the critical moments.”

“We need to open better on Thursday, and translate good opportunities into baskets. We need to guard better. We need to be optimistic, and to believe in ourselves. If we had been hitting our shots better from three-point range and from two, things would have been different. We had unforced missed shots, even some really annoying ones. It won’t be easy, but it’s possible to beat them. We have some excellent players who simply weren’t having a good shooting day. We weren’t focused enough in the first half, and that’s something that keeps happening. We didn’t make the switch from the Israeli league to the qualifying round in the Euroleague fast enough.”

Lior Eliyahu added, “We need to bring a lot of motivation from this game into the game on Thursday. We missed a lot of shots that we usually make with very good percentages. I don’t think that was caused by pressure. Once the game gets started, no one is thinking about rankings. Sometimes there are days like that, when the ball just doesn’t go in. I’m hoping for a game like this one on Thursday, just that we’ll make more shots and they’ll miss more.”

Chuck Eidson said, “To a certain extent, we’re encouraged, because we had several opportunities to take this game. We were weak on defense at times, and we gave them too many open shots. Good teams like this one take advantage of mistakes like that. We’re disappointed, but we can’t think about it too much because we’ve got another game coming up and we have to steal it. We wanted to take this game, but we’ll come strong to Thursday’s game and I believe we can win it.”

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