Fives games into the Euroleague, Maccabi continues to uphold clean slate at home by beating Cibona Zagrev 80-74. Katash’s players excelled in the first three quarters, especially during the third, but a drop in tension during the last quarter helped the Croats to come back strongly. The game was decided with excellent play at the end by Halperin and Fizer, 80-74 in another home win.

Katash surprised all by opening the game with Caspi and Eliyahu on the front line along with Fizer. The two were grateful,l expressing thanks to their coach by scoring seven of the first eleven points on the way to a 13-7 yellow lead in the middle of the first quarter. Nevertheless, there was not much cause for celebration; the Croats took good advantage of Maccabi’s leaky defense and even managed to take the lead at 14-13 form a basket by Vukusic, three and a half minutes to the quarter buzzer. Maccabi came back well towards the end of the quarter, but a basket in the last second by Mulaomerovic put the board at 21-20 to Cibona at the 10 minute mark.

Garcia leveled the score with a three at the start of the second quarter and in the following attack, sent a great post-up ball to Batista who scored. Five strong defensive players, displaying excellent defense in the second quarter, paralyzed the Croat attack, but on the other hand, they could not find a scoring combination and the game was point free for a few long minutes.

The pointless minutes ended with baskets by Morris and Garcia who built a leading gap 32-26, 5 minutes into the quarter. The Croats continued to fall apart against the yellow aggressive play which was supported by backup from Morris. A three by Blumenthal enlarged the gap to 35-26 making an angry Vukusic call his players to the bench for a timeout, 4 minutes to the buzzer. Sharp and Blumenthal added more points to determine the half-time score, a comfortable 40-29 to Maccabi.

The second half commenced at much the same pace with Fizer digging his way to the loop and Warren (13 points in Q1) trying to close the gap with points of his own. This was all that was needed for Sharp, who joined in the second minute, to push Maccabi inot a stronger lead with a 9-0 run that put the score at 51-36, almost half way into the quarter.

The trend continued in the fourth – Maccabi displaying uncoordinated play and nothing exceptionally smart against exceptionally weak play from the visitors. Maccabi lost possession many times and Cibona managed to scrape together some points to close the gap somewhat to 70-55, 4 and a half minutes into the last quarter. The Croats suddenly shirked the coma and realizing that they do have 3 point shooters in their arsenal, scored threes with shots from Rozic and Kelly. A basket by Warren and the visitors had swiftly closed the gap to 74-65.

Maccabi found it difficult to focus and could only watch the tremendous gap slip through their fingers after being convinced that they had already pocketed the game. Eliyahu and Fizer both missed their free throws and a three from Kelly minimized Macccabi’s lead to 74-70, 2 minutes to the final buzzer. With a 3 point lead and 35 seconds left, Maccabi led their last and important attack. Halperin, in a great move, put the ball in Fizer’s hands right under the basket. The big man ended the attack with a basket and a point from the line. The scoreboard tallied a 6 point yellow win, 80-74.

Maccabi: Eliyahu 12, Fizer 11, Sharp 10, Batista 9, Blumenthal 9, Garcia 9, Cummings , Halperin 5, Morris 4, Caspi 3, Bynum 2.