By Amy Samin

In week 22 of Lotto League play, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv defeated Rishon Lezion 80 – 72. The game took place 5 days before Maccabi is slated to begin its bid for a spot in the Euroleague Final Four in a best of five series against Spanish team Caja Laboral that begins on Tuesday. Due to a scheduling conflict, the game took place in Holon instead of on Maccabi’s home court, Nokia Arena. Before the game, Maccabi’s David Blu received a signed basketball in honor of his reaching the 1,000 point mark in the Israeli league.

Coach Blatt gave the nod to Jeremy Pargo, Lior Eliyahu, Guy Pnini, Chuck Eidson, and Sofoklis Schortsanitis, while Aaron McGhee, Dwayne Mitchell, Raymar Morgan, Nizan Hanochi, and Eyal Shulman led off for Rishon Lezion. The game got off to a slow start, but McGhee and Mitchell led Rishon to a 6 – 2 lead after three minutes. Points by Eliyahu were answered by the duo, while points from Richard Hendrix were answered by Shulman, who made it 10 – 4 after six and a half minutes. Doron Perkins scored and sent an alley-oop to David Blu, and at the end of one period Maccabi had narrowed Rishon’s lead to 15 – 11.

Maccabi came out strong in the second quarter, quickly tying the score at 15 off points by Eidson and Blu. Morgan and Hanochi responded, but a one-handed dunk by Eidson (assist Sofo) and a rebound-and-shoot by Blu kept Maccabi close. Morgan scored from outside the arc to give his team some breathing room, but Perk drained a shot from the top of the arc to make it 24 – 22 at the halfway mark in the period. Eidson scored from the foul line to tie it, then dished to Blu for a bomb from beyond downtown to give Maccabi their first lead of the game, 27 – 24. Another three from Blu and points by Eidson set the stage for a 7 - 0 scoring run crafted entirely by Eliyahu to make it 39 – 26 with less than a minute left in the half. Perk executed a steal and dunk, and Pnini sent up a bucket while falling to the floor. Points by Isaiah Swann for Rishon finished the quarter, with Maccabi leading 43 – 29.

Rishon Lezion managed to narrow the gap to 43 – 35 early in the third quarter, but a layup by Blu put Maccabi’s lead back in double digits. McGhee and company narrowed the gap to 45 - 39, and a two-handed dunk by Hendrix (assist Pnini) was met by more points from McGhee and Shulman. Perkins scored off the glass, then dished to Hendrix for more points in the paint, 51 – 44 Maccabi with three and a half minutes left in the period. Eidson scored twice for Maccabi (assists Hendrix and Pargo), but Mitchell and company pulled within four, 55 – 51 with less than two minutes on the clock in the period. Eliyahu, Perk, and Pnini scored to end the quarter with Maccabi leading 61 – 53.

The first five points of the final quarter belonged to Eidson, who showed his versatility by following a dunk on the inbounds with a three-pointer from the left wing. Eliyahu tipped in a missed layup and then scored one of his patented spin-and-ins, making it 70 – 53 after two and a half minutes. Morgan and Mitchell scored from the charity stripe and McGhee added points to pull Rishon within four, 70 – 66 and causing Blatt to call for a time out. Points by Perk and Hendrix (who scored a spin-and-in off the glass in McGhee’s face) were followed by a long two by Eidson that made it 76 – 66 with less than three minutes left in the game. Morgan scored to bring Rishon within eight, but a bucket and one by Hendrix and a point by Blu from the foul line sealed the deal with a minute and a half left on the clock. Points by Hanochi and McGhee were too little too late, and when time ran out Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv had upped their tally to 21 – 1 on the season thus far with an 80 – 72 win over Maccabi Offici Rishon Lezion.

Box Score:

Maccabi: Eidson 19 points; Blu and Eliyahu 15 points, 7 rebounds each; Perkins 14 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 5 steals; Hendrix 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals; Pnini 4 points; Schortsanitis 2 points. Rishon: Morgan 21 points; McGhee 15 points; Shulman 12 points; Hanochi & Mitchell 10 points each.

David Blatt: “There were a lot of unhappy moments. Every game has an influence, good or bad, before the series against Caja Laboral. We didn’t play well for many parts of the game, and we’ll need to work on that. We need to start the series next week in the best possible shape, because we’re expecting super-difficult games against a skilled and experienced team.”

“We’re very familiar with Caja, and we’ll need to demonstrate a lot of skill,” added Maccabi’s head coach. “We tried to give our central players a few minutes’ rest today, and that’s part of the reason we played less well. We’ve played an entire season with a lot of minutes on the backs of certain players, but we need to come to the games in Spain at full strength in order to achieve something that no one, at the start of the season, dreamed we could do – but now they do. We’ve been in money time several times this year, and now we are once again. It’s one of those times where you have to be completely focused and at your very best.”

Game MVP Chuck Eidson said, “I feel good about next week. It’s a big week for us. I’m glad we got this win and I’m looking forward to it.” When asked how Maccabi will prepare for the series against Caja Laboral, Eidson said, “I think we’ll go really hard in practice and really study them; we’ve played them twice already, so we know a bit about them. Everybody’s excited to get it started. I have a good feeling. We need to steal one win on the road, but if we don’t we’re not going to get crazy. It’s going to be fun, going to be exciting.”

Lior Eliyahu, who scored 15 points, said, “Rishon Lezion played very well, and their players deserve credit. We let up a little but we won and that’s what’s important, especially before the games next week against Caja Laboral. I’m happy about the win even though it wasn’t by the point difference that everyone seemed to expect.”

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