By Amy Samin

Maccabi head coach David Blatt opened with Guy Pnini, Doron Perkins, Lior Eliyahu, Jeremy Pargo, and Sofoklis Schortsanitis.
Dan Shamir led off with Ron Steele, Dan Grunfeld, Shawn James, Lee Nailon, and Ben Rice for the visitors.
Maccabi got off to an excellent start with a 13 - 4 run in the first two and a half minutes that included points from Perkins, Pargo, and Pnini (who scored two straight three-pointers).
Bnei Hasharon tried to narrow the gap, but Eliyahu scored and made an assist to Sofo to put Maccabi up 17 – 6.
Eliyahu went on to score twice more, a dunk off a steal/assist from Pnini and a putback, and Pargo added an Eliyahu-like shot to make it 24 – 12, Maccabi.
Filberto Rivera and Nailon cut the lead to eight, but the last three minutes of the period belonged to Eidson, who tallied seven points, a block and a steal in that time.
At the end of one quarter, Maccabi led 33 – 24.

Bnei Hasharon was focused in the second quarter, and six straight points by Nailon put the visitors within two, 34 – 32 after three minutes.
A dunk by James tied the score at 36, and points from the charity stripe gave Bnei Hasharon a 38 – 36 lead at the halfway mark in the period.
A one-handed slammer by Eidson put Maccabi back on top, with Pargo and Eliyahu (off an assist by Yaniv Green) giving Maccabi some breathing room; at the half, Maccabi led by four, 45 – 41.

Shortly after the start of the third quarter, the visitors retook the lead, 46 – 45 off points by Erez Katz.
Two straight dunks by Sofo kept the advantage seesawing, but free throws by James put Bnei Hasharon ahead for good, 51 – 49.
Two straight buckets from outside the arc extended their cushion to eight, 57 – 49.
A pretty finger-roll by Sofo narrowed the gap a bit, but James and Steele quickly responded.
The entrance of Maccabi’s team captain Derrick Sharp into the game woke up the crowd and fired up the team, who tightened up on defense.
A putback by Green was followed by a classic catch-and-Sharpshoot from #6 and a bomb from Pargo at the top of the arc, but at the end of the third quarter Maccabi trailed by seven, 66 – 59.

Katz scored a three in the opening minute of the fourth quarter to put the visitors up by ten; his points were followed by buckets from Steele and Rivera, 74 - 61.
The wily Sharp salvaged three points from the free throw line and put Maccabi back within ten, but Bnei Hasharon managed to keep their distance.
Pargo and Perk both scored from outside the arc and at the middle of the period Maccabi was down by only seven, 78 – 71.
David Blu scored from downtown off an assist from Eliyahu, who went on to drain a three-pointer of his own, which he then followed with five more points, putting the home team within one, 83 – 82 with a minute left in the game.
Maccabi fought hard in the final minute, but six straight points from the charity stripe gave Bnei Hasharon the win, 91 – 88 over Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv.

Box Scores:

Maccabi: Pargo 21 points; Eliyahu 20 points; Eidson 11 points; Schortsanitis 9 points; Perkins and Pnini 7 points each; Sharp 6 points; Blu 5 points; Green 2 points.

Bnei Hasharon: James 22 points; Grunfeld and Nailon 19 points each; Steele 16 points; Rivera 8 points; Katz 7 points.

After the game, Maccabi head coach David Blatt said, “We weren’t ready for this game; we certainly didn’t play with our usual level of energy and intensity.
Let’s give them the credit and not make excuses: they played a great game and they deserve the win.
We didn’t do well on defense, and Bnei Hasharon had a great scoring day from all over the court.
They’re a team that doesn’t exactly have an excellent average from three-point range, but today they had very high percentages.”

Chuck Eidson: “They had a good game; they did everything they were supposed to do.
James and Nailon are great players, and sometimes when players come to Nokia they play even better, and that’s what happened.
We’ll look at the tapes and we’ll improve from there.
A loss is always a wake-up call.”

Tal Burstein: “We didn’t play good defense against Bnei Hasharon, and they had a great game tonight.
These things happen.
This game is behind us now; we’ll take the good things from it and continue.
We didn’t guard well today, there’s no getting around that.
We missed easy shots, and the game just didn’t go our way.”

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