Nine times Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv played in the European Cup Final. The tenth time will be on Saturday ( NOKIA Arena, 21:40) will be the first time the final will be played in Tel Aviv. This after a great 93-85 win over CSKA Moscow. The other finalist will be Skipper Bologna who beat Montepaschi Siena 103-102 in overtime.
Ten thousand spectators, most of them dressed in yellow, cheered their team and saw a dramatic game with Maccabi coming from behind and puttiing a great show in the second half. To beat Euroleague’s number one team
CSKA led 27-18 at the end of the first quarter with 5-8 in three pointers . At half time the margin was only one points, 42-41.
Maccabi had its first lead 49-48 nafter 25 minutes and at the end of the third held a 62-55 lead. The Reds came back to 70-66 but with a brilliand display from Anthony Parrker and with coach Pini Gershon dictating the style of the game, Maccabi ran to 80-68 and never looked back. Parker scored 27 pts, pulled down 6 rbds, dished 2 assists, made 2 steals and 1 blocked shot. Other scorers: Jasikevicius 18 & 6 ass, Vujcic 14 & 7 rbds, Baston 11 & 10 rbds, Blothenthal 9, Burstein 5, Halperin 4, Shelef 2, Thomas 2, Sharp 1. Top scorers for CSKA: Brown 23, Holden 16, Alexander 12.
Top scorers in Skipper’s win over Montepaschi: Delfino 27, Smodis 14, Vujanic & Mottola 12 each. For Siena: Thornton 26, Kakiouzis 23, Andersen 17.