“Every player, without exception, made a contribution to this victory,” said Lior Eliyahu. Gershon commented, “I see the weaknesses, not the positive things”
By Amy Samin
“It’s a team sport, and even if one player scores 80 points and all the rest 10, it’s still a team sport,” said Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv head coach Pini Gershon after Thursday night’s 87 – 73 victory over Le Mans in France.
The victory assures that Maccabi will play in the Top 16.
“We won, and that’s very important.
I understand that
Yes, we’ve reached one goal: we made the Top 16.
But we still need to strengthen and improve the team.”
Omri Casspi said, “I started the game well, and I felt confident on the court.
We made a lot of fast breaks, we made a lot of easy baskets, and when everyone gets a hand on the ball, that’s good.
On Monday we have an Israeli Cup game that we have to win, that’s probably the most important thing now.
After we win, we’ll go to the break with a good feeling.
The Israeli players have been given opportunities, and they’ve proven their worth on the court.
All the players on Maccabi are top level, and whoever has confidence plays well,” concluded the forward.
Lior Eliyahu said, “Every player, without exception, made a contribution to this victory.
Arroyo and Marcus Brown were outstanding, Green put in good minutes on defense, and Casspi had a great game.
I have fun playing with Carlos.
The more we learn Pini’s methods, the cooperation will grow, not just between me and him but for everyone; and we’ll play more and more together as a unit.”
“Fischer didn’t play and we felt his absence even though we won.
I’m happy that his injury isn’t as serious as we first thought, and that he’ll be back playing with us soon.
I always try to do my utmost for the team.
Pini supports me and gives me minutes, and I’m happy that I can be effective.
I hope that continues.
On Monday we have an important game against Nahariya, even more important than this one, and I hope we’ll continue to win.”
Maccabi’s assistant coach, Sharon Drucker, said, “We played good defense.
In the first quarter they took some rebounds on offense but we put a stop to that.
When they missed shots, we punished them at the other end.
It wasn’t an easy game, because they wanted to win and we came to this game after a loss, but we beat them convincingly.”
“In preparing for this game, we talked about getting a lot of players involved, and we moved the ball well even when we were tired,” added Drucker.
“We’re coming away with the feeling that there’s still a lot of work to do, but the players understand the system better.
It’s not easy to play four straight away games, and we have a tough game coming up in Nahariya.
We’ve made the Top 16 and that’s a great feeling; of course, we’ll want to improve our standing.”
