By Amy Samin<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/SPAN> Maccabi opened with the same starting five as in the previous game: Arroyo, Burstein, Williams, Fisher and Simmons. Opposite them were the players on CSKA\u2019s first string: Holden, Lorbek, Langdon, Khryapa, and Morris. Both teams looked weak and disorganized in the opening minutes of the game, and after four minutes the Russians had a small lead, 7 \u2013 4. Maccabi\u2019s opening wasn\u2019t brilliant, to say the least, which led Birenboim to put Rodney White into the game for his first minutes on the court in the Maccabi uniform. White and Simmons played assertively, and helped Maccabi close the gap, then tie the game at 11 with three and a half minutes left in the quarter. The game continued to be close in the early minutes of the second quarter, when both teams were especially precise with their offensive passing. Four minutes into the quarter, the score stood at 29 \u2013 28 in favor of CSKA. Coach Efy Birenboim kept Casspi and White on the court at the start of the third quarter, but Maccabi saw its lead erased by two quick three pointers by the Russians.Weak defense and unfocussed offense by Maccabi enabled CKSA to open a bigger lead, 51 \u2013 42, while Maccabi failed to score in the first five minutes of the quarter. Maccabi tried to get back in the game at the start of the fourth quarter, with more intensity on defense and points scored by Batista.The Russians weren\u2019t fazed, however, and after some pointers from Scorers for Maccabi: Arroyo 13 points, White 12, Casspi 8, Simmons and Williams 7 each, Batista 6 (7 rebounds), Hagag, Fisher and Eliyahu 2 points each. Scores for CSKA: Lorbek 12 points (7 rebounds), Langdon 15, Khryapa 12, Morris 8, Planinic 7, Holden 5, Savrasensko 4, Zisis 3 points.<\/FONT><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/FONT><\/SPAN> <\/SPAN> Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv finished fourth in the Gomelsky Tournament after a 76 \u2013 59 loss to CSKA Moscow. Arroyo was a standout with 13 points; White scored 12 in his first game with Maccabi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-28016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494684,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28016\/revisions\/494684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28016"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=28016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/SPAN>The two teams stayed closely matched <\/SPAN>until a run of four points by Planinic near the end of the quarter put CSKA up 21 \u2013 20.
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<\/SPAN>An interesting one-on-one situation developed between Morris and White, who was Maccabi\u2019s main play-maker for those minutes.With three and a half minutes left in the half, the score was tied at 32.
<\/SPAN>Two three-point baskets by Arroyo and Williams brought the score to 38 \u2013 32, Maccabi, with two minutes left before halftime. Eliyahu extended that lead with two free throws, but weak defense by Maccabi on two successive runs by CSKA helped the Russians close Maccabi\u2019s lead to three, 40 \u2013 37. Casspi scored in the final seconds of the half to close out a successful quarter for Maccabi: 42 \u2013 37.
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<\/SPAN>Foul trouble kept Fisher on the bench for the remainder of the game.
<\/SPAN>With three minutes left in the quarter, CKSA was on fire while Maccabi fizzled; with Arroyo scoring the only three points, Maccabi ceased to be a threat to the Russians, who opened a 63 \u2013 45 lead with a minute and a half remaining in the quarter.
<\/SPAN>Maccabi\u2019s horrible performance continued right up until the end of the quarter, with Maccabi scoring only two more baskets before the whistle. The quarter ended with CKSA leading, 63 \u2013 49.
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<\/SPAN>A turnover by Hagag led to a scoring run by the Russians, which caused Birenboim to call a time out in order to try and prevent a crushing defeat by CKSA.
<\/SPAN>In spite of that, the Russians kept on coming, and Maccabi had little to say about it, with the exception of personal contributions by Arroyo and White.
<\/SPAN>Points scored by Maccabi in their last possessions of the game prevented the humiliation from being worse. Final score: 76 \u2013 59, CKSA.<\/FONT><\/SPAN>
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