By Amy Samin<\/FONT> Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv faced a tough challenge, and more than rose to the occasion. Pini Gershon<\/B> praised his players after the game: \u201cNo offense, but I expected a little more from the crowd tonight; the fans were okay in the decisive moments. \u201cMost of our players outdid themselves in the crucial moments. \u201cThe crowd showed up for the fourth quarter, just like us. \u201cThree teams from our previous group are going to the playoffs,\u201d the coach added. Alan Anderson<\/B>, who was MVP with 24 points, said: \u201cI was a little disappointing in the third quarter, so I\u2019m happy that in the fourth quarter everything worked. Center D\u2019or Fischer<\/B>, who had an excellent defensive game, said, \u201cIt was an amazing game. Point guard Doron Perkins<\/B> added: \u201cThe match-up against McIntyre wasn\u2019t as easy this time as it was in the game in Italy, but in the end that wasn\u2019t what\u2019s important. David Bluthenthal<\/B> added, \u201cIt was a great game. Andrew Wisniewski<\/B> concluded, \u201cWe\u2019re really excited about the playoffs. Guy Pnini<\/B>, who was the only Israeli to score in the game (two points in 19 minutes) said, \u201cAll week we talked about what a fight this would be. Raviv Limonad<\/B>, who played for two minutes, added, \u201cYou can\u2019t ignore it, we achieved something great for the club. At the press conference after the game, Siena head coach Simone Pianigiani<\/B> said, \u201cWhat happened at the end of the game isn\u2019t clear. \u201cThat\u2019s basketball, and that\u2019s the Euroleague,\u201d Pianigiani continued. The coach also talked about Maccabi\u2019s next steps: \u201cIt matters if you finish in first or second place in the group. Barcelona is the best team in Europe, and the home court advantage is important for Maccabi.
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In Thursday night\u2019s game against Montepaschi Siena, Pini Gershon\u2019s players put on the biggest quarter ever in the history of the club (scoring 43 points), and winning 97 \u2013 82 at Nokia Arena, thereby erasing the loss they suffered in an earlier game in Italy.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid defeated Efes Pilsen in Turkey, securing their own place in the quarterfinals.
Maccabi\u2019s next task is to steal a win against Real in Madrid and secure the top spot in Group F; if they fail, they can expect to face a best-of-three against the intimidating Barcelona.<\/FONT>
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We played the smartest game possible in the fourth quarter.
It wasn\u2019t a 15 point game, more like 5 or 7, but if we hadn\u2019t had so many turnovers in the first half, our lead would have been bigger earlier on.\u201d<\/FONT>
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I hope that this time was only 50% and in the next game we\u2019ll finish the job.
Obviously it will be tough in Madrid, but you can\u2019t look back, only ahead.
In the second half we made the minimum number of mistakes.
The most important thing was to keep everyone focused, because Siena is a team that can heat up quickly.
We did a good job guarding McIntyre, Hawkins and Sato, and kept them below their averages.\u201d<\/FONT>
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The last thing I want is a problem with the fans, and in the fourth quarter we played a very exciting game, but in a game this important I expect 11,000 fans to be on their feet the whole game.\u201d<\/FONT>
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\u201cThat shows you that the first round, and also this one, were no picnic.
We ended up in two tough groups, and if God wills it, we\u2019ll be in the Final Four.
If we win in Madrid, we\u2019ve done something great; if not we\u2019ll do our best from second place.
We\u2019re still in a tough position.
There are better teams than ours that didn\u2019t qualify, and I\u2019d be happy if there wasn\u2019t a knock out at this point, because there are also teams in the Top 8 that aren\u2019t as good as we are.\u201d<\/FONT>
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A real leader on the court doesn\u2019t wait for good things to happen, he makes them happen.
We have a lot of great players who can make the big shots; we just have to create those shots for them.\u201d<\/FONT>
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I think that in the moments when we needed the crowd most, they gave us their all. We had a tough three quarters, and if you want to be precise, a tough three and a half quarters.
I didn\u2019t believe we\u2019d finish the game with a 15 point lead; in fact I didn\u2019t think at all about point spread, I just wanted to win and I\u2019m happy we did.
Next week we\u2019re going to Madrid to win; we want first place in our group.
That\u2019s been our goal since the start of this season and right now we\u2019re as happy as can be,\u201d concluded the center.<\/FONT>
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I\u2019m happy that we won tonight and that we did what we had to.
Our goal against Real Madrid next week is to win; that\u2019s always Maccabi\u2019s goal.
We\u2019re not really thinking about who we\u2019ll play against later; we can play against any team.\u201d<\/FONT>
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We had a tough time in the first three quarters and we made some mistakes, but what\u2019s important is that in the crucial minutes at the end of the game, we outdid ourselves and played almost without any mistakes.
We\u2019ve taken an important step towards the playoffs, and next week we want to also beat Real Madrid in order to finish in first place in our group.
It won\u2019t be an easy game, but we\u2019re coming to it with character and a will to win and we hope to do it.\u201d<\/FONT>
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This was one of our best team efforts of the season.
We\u2019re happy right now because there were people who thought we wouldn\u2019t make it to the playoffs.
We have a tough game against Real coming up and we need to keep working hard.
This was a big test of our character, and we showed we\u2019ve got a lot of it.\u201d<\/FONT>
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We watched the game between Siena and Real; there was a lot of rough play but not much basketball.
We prepared for that kind of game.
There was a boxing match here, for three and a half quarters they didn\u2019t let up.
Thanks to the crowd and our character, we opened things up at the end.\u201d<\/FONT>
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It\u2019s an honor to be one of the eight best teams in Europe.
Now we need to win in Madrid. I think that we can get to the Final Four.\u201d<\/FONT>
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The game was pretty equal, we played well, we controlled the game, we attacked like we should, and we did what we\u2019d planned.
Unfortunately, we missed open shots, we turned over the ball, and Maccabi took advantage.
We missed free throws, and games like this are decided by little things.
We missed our real chance to qualify for the playoffs in the last two minutes of the game in Madrid.\u201d<\/FONT>
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\u201cWe lost the game in the last few minutes and let them win by 15 points.
We had no energy at the end.
We knew the situation in the group, and we knew we had to stay focused for the entire 40 minutes in every game, and that\u2019s the reason we\u2019re out of it.
I congratulate Maccabi.
It\u2019s over for us, but we showed everyone in Europe that we play well and I have nothing bad to say about my players.\u201d<\/FONT>
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Everyone knows what it\u2019s like here.
Maccabi has a tradition, and anything can happen.\u201d<\/FONT>
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