Jake Cohen, who scored a EuroLeague career-high 20 points said after the tough-fought 68:73 defeat in Kaunas: “Aaron (Jackson) and Jaylon (Reynolds) basically coming off the plane to play”. Dorsey: “It was a close-fought game”. Sfairopoulos: “We showed big character”
Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv came up short in the 68:73 loss to Zalgiris Kaunas after a tight battle playing in a limited roster. Scottie Wilbekin and Othello Hunter, who suffered injuries in last week’s fixture against Anadolu Efes, joined the long list of injured players (Omri Casspi, Tarik Black, Nate Wolters, and John DiBartolomeo) who didn’t take part in tonight’s game. The two new Yellow & Blue additions, Aaron Jackson and Jalen Reynolds, made their Maccabi debut.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed with the result, but I think we did a great job fighting”, Told Jake Cohen after leading Maccabi scorers with a EuroLeague career-high 20 points. “It was a tough situation coming in with Otello (Hunter) and Scottie (Wilbekin) going down, and everyone knows how important those guys are. Aaron (Jackson) and Jaylon (Reynolds) basically came off the plane to play, it’s a hard situation, and I thought they deserve a lot of credit for their effort”.
“We showed a lot of fight as a team, that is some of the positive things we can take away from this game, and obviously, we have some corrections to do as well”.
“We had a really good first half, but we had a stretch in the third quarter where we made mental mistakes defensively, and offensively we didn’t find a rhythm”, Analyzed Tyler Dorsey, who finished the night with 18 points. “That continued into the fourth, small details could have changed the game, but it was a close-fought contest. We played our hearts out, but this game was in our hands, and we let it slip away”.
“I think today we fought really hard, and we gave our best”, Said head coach Giannis Sfairopoulos after the game. “As long as we had control of the rhythm, we were up even by a double-digit margin. I think that for a few minutes, we lost our concentration as Zalgiris played their normal game here with a lot of pressing, stealing balls and running in transition. They were able to score and took the lead, but for me, it was very important that we never gave up, we fought till the end”.
“I’m very unhappy from one side because we lost, but on the other hand, I’m happy that our players fought for this game. They deserve credit for their fight, we showed big character.”
“We have injuries, but I don’t want to talk about that anymore, we have a roster with players that can play really hard and you saw that tonight on the court”, Expressed Sfairopoulos. “We played against Zalgiris that although they lost games at home, they play really good and they are an excellent team”.
