The Israeli champions summarized Friday’s loss and the European campaign. Sfairopoulos: “Next year, we will need to better and wiser”. Dorsey: “We got to keep moving, getting ready for the Israeli League and State Cup Finals”
Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv hoped to conclude the EuroLeague season on a better note, but Giannis Sfairopoulos’s squad suffered a 69:86 road defeat to Zenit St Petersburg in a game that didn’t go as planned, finishing the European campaign in 13th place with 14 wins and 20 losses. On Monday, the Yellow & Blue return to the Israeli Winner League facing Hapoel Jerusalem in the capital.
Angelo Caloiaro didn’t make the trip to Russia following his newborn girl’s birth, as Othello Hunter returned to action for the first time since March 18th, playing 19 minutes contributing 3 points and 4 rebounds. Tyler Dorsey scored 15 points, Chris Jones added 11 points, while Scottie Wilbekin provided 9 points and 4 rebounds.
“We didn’t start well as Zenit gained a double-digit difference at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, we did a better job on both ends of the court, and at halftime, we said we need to improve our game”, Summarized Maccabi’s head coach Giannis Sfairopoulos. “The game’s critical point came in the third period scoring only 11 points while turning the ball 8 times, which led to easy points on the other end. From that point, it was really difficult to stop them. It wasn’t a good season for us, we need to better and wiser next season”.
Maccabi’s top scorer Tyler Dorsey expressed his thoughts after the final EuroLeague game: “We couldn’t pull it together. They are a good team, and all game long, we couldn’t get defensive stops. We got to keep moving, getting ready for the Israeli League and State Cup Finals. It wasn’t our year in the Euroleague”.
