{"id":500320,"date":"2017-02-13T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8080\/mekel-in-games-like-this-winning-pretty-is-less-important\/"},"modified":"2017-02-13T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-13T10:00:00","slug":"mekel-in-games-like-this-winning-pretty-is-less-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/mekel-in-games-like-this-winning-pretty-is-less-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Mekel: \u201cIn games like this, winning pretty is less important\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\tThere were definitely some extra heartbeats at the end, but in such a packed and intense season, we\u2019ve all learned that in some games, it\u2019s all about the bottom line. And that line states: Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv will play for its 8th consecutive cup on Thursday, after beating Ashdod in the semi-final.<\/p>\n

\tIt ended with a 95 \u2013 89 score after Bagatskis\u2019 group showed great poise in the clutch when Ashdod kept getting closer. Victor Rudd, who scored 22, DJ Seeley with 17, Gal Mekel & Guy Pnini who each scored 13 all helped overcome a rare off-shooting night by Andrew Goudelock who only scored 2 points from the line.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cIt was a tough game\u201d, said Victor Rudd<\/strong>, MVP of the semi-final. \u201cA good team win. We fought through adversity in the second half with some tough calls. I played well but it was a team effort\u201d.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cThey stayed in it\u201d, said Gal Mekel<\/strong>, who came up big in the clutch moments of Ashdod. \u201cThey made some tough shots. We had opportunities to run away but couldn\u2019t do it. But in such games winning pretty is less important, just getting the win and I\u2019m happy we got it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\tCoach Ainars Bagatskis<\/strong>: \u201cWho said we were favorites? We had 25% chance and now it\u2019s going to be 50-50. Ashdod is a good team with a good coach and we let them take too many offensive rebounds. But I\u2019m happy with the bottom line and that\u2019s what\u2019s important\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Watch post-game reaction from the arena following the 95 \u2013 89 win over Ashdod. Victor Rudd, the leading scorer with 22: \u201cI played well but it was a team effort\u201d. Coach Bagatskis: \u201cFor the final, in one game, it\u2019s 50-50\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":500319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"custom_author":[],"class_list":["post-500320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-54"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500320","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=500320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500320"},{"taxonomy":"custom_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maccabi.co.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom_author?post=500320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}