Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv will return home tomorrow heads high in spite of the 79-93 loss in Orlando vs the Magic. Once more Pini Gershon’s players had a good & solid game vs an NBA team that displayed all their top players. This was Maccabi’s first defeat in preseason games and they are now 8-1.
Maccabi started impressively ans led 20-10 & 26-21. But at the end of the first quarter the Magic held a 29-28 lead. An excellent game by Anthony Parker, Will Solomon & Derrick Sharp kept Maccabi in the game (44-44) and at half time the host led 51-45.
The Yellows took a 56-55 lead in the third with a Sharp’s three pointer. But the Magic played some strong defense and ran 17-3 to take a 72-59 leas and 73-62 at the end of the third. Baston was fouled out with 4.24 minutes to go. Maccabi reduced the margin to 79-85 but Steve Francis and his team mates ran 8-0 and assured their victory.
Maccabi scorers: Parker 20, Solomon 19 (3 three pointers), Baston 16, Sharp 12 (3 three pointers), Vujcic 8, Burstein 2, Penney 2. Green played but did not score
. Top scorers for Orlando: Francic 20, Howard 16, Turkoglu 11, Hill 10 pts.
