Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv finished fourth in the Alexander Belov Tournament in St. Petersburg after a 90 – 82 loss to former Maccabi coach Zvika Sherf and his Spartak St. Petersburg team. Perkins finished with 22 points and 8 rebounds, Burstein scored 12.
By Amy Samin
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv finished fourth in the Alexander Belov Tournament in St. Petersburg after a 90 – 82 loss to former Maccabi coach Zvika Sherf and his Spartak St. Petersburg team.
Perkins finished with 22 points and 8 rebounds, Burstein scored 12.
For the final practice game before heading home, Maccabi head coach David Blatt led off with Doron Perkins, Chuck Eidson, Guy Pnini, Richard Hendrix, and Sofoklis Schortsanitis.
Time after time, Maccabi took advantage of Sofo’s physicality under the basket, and he responded with seven quick points, giving Maccabi an early 9 – 7 lead.
But St. Petersburg was able to grab the advantage, 18 – 13 when former Hapoel Jerusalem star Dijon Thompson dunked and scored nine points.
Veteran player Henry Domerçant got hot, scoring seven of St. Petersburg points in an 8 – 0 scoring run, which put the home team up 24 – 15 at the end of the first period.
The Russian domination continued at the start of the second quarter as well, with newcomer Pero Antic causing problems for Maccabi under both baskets.
Spartak’s lead swelled to 30 – 19.
St. Petersburg continued to control the boards, and were able to slice through Maccabi’s defense to maintain their lead.
Blatt called Tal Burstein, Lior Eliyahu and David Blu off the bench and put Sofo back in the game; the latter continued to score and Maccabi whittled the lead down to ten, 36 – 26. At the other end, Domerçant and Thompson were on fire, and a huge bucket by Miha Zupan gave St. Petersburg back a double digit lead.
With three minutes left until halftime, Sherf’s team led 43 – 30.
Eidson and Perkins forged an 8 – 0 scoring run for Maccabi, and the period ended with the score 43 – 38.
A three pointer from the corner by Burstein set Maccabi’s deficit at a mere four points, 52 – 48, though Spartak had no trouble moving the ball in the paint.
Fortunately for Blatt, Perkins scored nine points in the third quarter (after scoring only seven in the entire first half), and the lead see-sawed between four and eight points for the remainder of the period.
In the fourth quarter Maccabi got back into the game, with the entrance of Yaniv Green, Burstein, and Elishay Kadir who contributed points and excitement.
Kadir and Burstein brought the score to 72 – 70 with four and a half minutes remaining.
Domerçant and Burstein exchanged baskets, though Spartak held on to a fragile 75 – 74 lead with 3:20 on the clock.
A three pointer by Anton Ponkrashov broke open a five point lead for the Russians, who protected their lead for the remainder of the game and came away with third place in the Alexander Belov Tournament with a 90 – 82 victory over Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv.
Box Scores
Maccabi: Perkins 22 points, 8 rebounds; Burstein 12 points; Sofo 11 points; Blu 9 points; Green 8 points, 4 rebounds; Hendrix 7 points; Eidson 6 points, 6 assists; Pargo 5 points; Kadir 2 points.
