By Amy Samin<\/FONT> Maccabi wasn\u2019t so far from elimination before the Final Four, but when they cut loose, they really cut loose. Immediately after the game, Pini Gershon <\/B>said, \u201cI\u2019ll take the first ten minutes of the game; after that, it was no contest. \u201cWe started the game the way we\u2019ve played all season \u2013 right, smart and aggressive,\u201d said Guy Pnini<\/B>. Captain Derrick Sharp<\/B>, who got lots of playing time Tuesday night, said, \u201cWe need to bring the same focus and concentration to the Final. Maccabi forward Guy Pnini<\/B> was pleased with the team\u2019s advance to the Final: \u201cIt\u2019s a great feeling. \u201cI just want to say to Netanya: good for you. Maccabi\u2019s point guard, Andrew Wisniewski<\/B> said, \u201cWe had a great game. Yaniv Green<\/B> added, \u201cWe knew about the story of the officials, and the whole thing about the bench, but we didn\u2019t care about those things, just how we would play the game. Netanya\u2019s point guard, Shmulik Brener<\/B>, was disappointed with the night\u2019s outcome: \u201cThis was not the result we\u2019d hoped for; we expected our game to be better. Brener added: \u201cWe\u2019re a much better team than what we looked like tonight, and it\u2019s kind of a shame that this is how we\u2019re ending the season. Head coach of Barak Netanya, Arik Alfasi<\/B> said, \u201cI expected that we\u2019d play better, and that we\u2019d put up more of a fight for more than a quarter or a half.
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Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv advanced to the Final of the Israeli Super League Tuesday night thanks to an overwhelming 104 \u2013 78 victory over Barak Netanya.
In Thursday night\u2019s Final, Maccabi will face Oded Katash\u2019s Gilboa\/Galil in a fight for the title.
Maccabi will come to the game 5,000 shekels lighter in pocket after the team was fined for Pini Gershon\u2019s late appearance at the press conference following Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/FONT>
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We played like we did all year.
Sometimes it\u2019s more successful, sometimes less.
We\u2019ve got two days to prepare for the game against Gilboa\/Galil, and we\u2019ll do whatever it takes to keep the title.\u201d<\/FONT>
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\u201cIt\u2019s the Final Four; we don\u2019t need anything extra to get fired up.
We tried to focus on basketball and not on what people were saying before the game.
We did our jobs like we should.\u201d
When asked if Maccabi had saved anything to use against Gilboa\/Galil on Thursday, the forward answered, \u201cWhat?
You didn\u2019t see the second half?\u201d<\/FONT>
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Our game is mostly mental.
I do what needs to be done.
If I go into the game, I do my job.
What matters to me is not if I play or not, but that Maccabi wins.\u201d<\/FONT>
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We did what we needed to do right from the start.
In the first half we returned to our usual good game and played patiently.\u201d<\/FONT>
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We\u2019ve got one game left, the championship game, and I hope we do the job.
We\u2019ll come ready to the Final, like we did today.
On Thursday there will be a great atmosphere here; there\u2019s a great team coming to play against us.\u201d<\/FONT>
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We were really focused.
We made our shots from outside and from the foul line.
We have a game on Thursday and we need to be focused; and we need to stay focused for the whole game.\u201d<\/FONT>
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Gilboa\/Galil is a really fast team and we need to be ready for that.
They\u2019re also a shorter team than Netanya and we need to do the match-ups.\u201d<\/FONT>
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We\u2019re very disappointed.
The start of the game really hurt us; they were very sharp, they ran more and it was very disheartening.
They had incredible percentages from three point range and really got to us on offensive rebounds.\u201d<\/FONT>
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We\u2019ve had a great season, and I hope that on Thursday we\u2019ll finish it with a better taste in our mouths.
We were thrown for a loop by a tough blow and it\u2019s hard to bounce back from it.
That\u2019s what happened to us tonight.
This was just one specific game and it doesn\u2019t reflect how we played all season long.\u201d<\/FONT>
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Good for Maccabi; they deserve the win.
We lost the game in the first half, maybe even in the first quarter.
Maybe those are the differences in the levels.
We had an amazing season even though today we didn\u2019t look good.
We need to take the good things from the season.
We also need to come and win the game for third place.\u201d<\/FONT>
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