Maccabi Beats Haifa 76 – 68

By Amy Samin

Maccabi started the game with Andrew Wisniewski, Alan Anderson, Guy Pnini, D’or Fischer and Yaniv Green.
Dror Hagag, Moshe Mizrahi, Jason Rich, Jeremy Tyler and Davor Jefferson started for the home team.

Haifa won the opening tip-off and scored first, but hustle and points by Anderson and Green gave Maccabi an 8 – 0 scoring run, and they led 8 – 2 after two and a half minutes.
But Haifa didn’t give up, and while Maccabi saw some excellent points from Fischer, Pnini and Doron Perkins (who came into the game and took charge), the home team managed to tie the game at 18 with two minutes left in the period.
But Maccabi’s excellent back line, Anderson, Perkins and David Bluthenthal (two three-pointers in the last minutes of the quarter) put Maccabi up 29 – 20 as time ran out.

Haifa started out strong in the second quarter and narrowed their deficit to 29 – 26, but Maccabi came back thanks to Perkins and Raviv Limonad.
With five minutes gone, the score was up to 33 – 26.
Maccabi continued to play well, and points from outside the arc by Eidson and under the basket by Green helped Maccabi’s lead grow to 14.
The Head closed that gap slightly, but the half ended with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the lead by eleven, 45 – 34.

In the early minutes of the third quarter, two Haifa players got unsportsmanlike calls, and Maccabi quickly built on the points earned there with a three-pointer from the corner by Anderson, taking their lead up to 52 – 36.

But the rest of the period went downhill from there for Maccabi, and even Perkins couldn’t lift Maccabi up.
The quarter ended with Maccabi clinging to a 58 – 54 lead.

The final period got off to a slow start for both teams, and not a single point was scored until finally Pnini made a couple of free throws.
That broke the ice, and Maccabi had a string of successful offensive plays that gave them back a double digit lead, 65 – 55 after four and a half minutes of play.

Eidson followed up a nice assist to Fish under the basket with a pretty three from the corner, and Perkins added a layup to put Maccabi up 74 – 60 with two and a half minutes left in the game.
The game ended in a victory for Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv, 76 – 68 over Maccabi Haifa.

Box Scores

Maccabi: Anderson 13 points; Bluthenthal and Limonad 12 points each; Perkins 11 points, 8 assists; Eidson 10 points, 8 assists; Green 9 points; Pnini 5 points; Fischer 4 points.
Wisniewski and Lasme played but did not score.
Mekel and Sharp did not play.

Haifa: Jefferson 21 points; Rich 16 points; Hagag 11 points; Pellot-Rosa 7 points; Strong and Kozikaro 4 points each; Mizrahi and Ben David 2 points each; Tyler 1 point.

Pini Gershon: “We didn’t play well.
In the first half, we could have scored a lot more.
We missed easy shots.
I tried various things, but for some of the players it was a physically tough game.
Bluthenthal started well but later his shots didn’t go in.
Let’s just say that the teams in the league are hoping his shots will be like that all season.”

David Bluthenthal: “It was really tough, but we played as a team.”