By Amy Samin

Maccabi’s starting five were Alan Anderson, Andrew Wisniewski, Yaniv Green, Raviv Limonad and D’or Fischer.
Ashkelon’s starters were Brian Tolbert, Chris Watson, Omar Sneed, Moran Roth and Jimmy Baxter.

Maccabi opened strong in the first quarter, with tight defense and a quick offense that took a 9 – 0 lead after three minutes of play.
Ashkelon eventually started hitting their shots, but three-pointers by both Limonad and Anderson – who were outstanding throughout the game – put Maccabi up 21 – 10 with about three and a half minutes left in the period.
Limonad hit another shot from downtown with less than a minute and a half to go, and a fade-away jumper from mid-range by Chuck Eidson set the score at the end of the period at 31 – 19, Maccabi.

Both teams started hitting from outside the arc at the start of the second quarter, including one from Guy Pnini near the top of the key.
After two and a half minutes the score was 39 – 27.
Ashkelon took advantage of Maccabi’s loose defense to close the gap, and with less than four minutes remaining in the period, the score stood at 43 – 37.
Maccabi continued to struggle, and at the end of the half the teams headed to the locker rooms with the score tied at 47 all.

Ashkelon stayed close at the start of the third quarter; after three minutes of play the score was 51 – 50.
Both teams looked lackluster until Pnini took charge, scoring 8 straight for Maccabi from all over the floor and putting the team from Tel Aviv up by seven, 61 – 54 at the halfway mark of the period.
Strong defense by Fischer and a three-pointer from Eidson at the top of the key put Maccabi’s lead back in double digits, 64 – 54 with about three and half on the clock.
Fischer continued to dominate on defense with two more blocked shots, while free throws from Derrick Sharp and a shot from Eidson from so far downtown he was in a different ZIP code put Maccabi up 70 – 60 with a minute left.
The quarter ended with the score 70 – 62.

The fourth quarter was dominated by the superior play of Anderson and Limonad, who within four and half minutes had pushed the score up to 82 – 67.
After scoring his fourth three-pointer of the night, Limonad left the game with 3:25 remaining and the score 89 – 72.
Lasme slammed home a dunk off an offensive rebound, and Mekel nailed some free throws to put Maccabi ahead 93 – 76 with a minute and a half left in the game.
Green scored a bucket plus foul off a dish from Lasme, and then dunked off a behind-the-back no-look pass from Mekel with thirty seconds remaining, putting Maccabi up by 19, 98 - 79.
Mekel put the cherry on the top of the cake with a smooth three-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer.
Final score: Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv 101 – Ashkelon 80.

Box Scores

Maccabi: Anderson 21 points, 8 assists; Limonad 21 points; Eidson 12 points, 7 rebounds; Pnini 11 points; Lasme 10 points, 7 rebounds; Fischer 9 points; Green 8 points; Mekel 5 points; Perkins and Sharp 2 points each.

Ashkelon: Baxter 19 points; Sneed 18 points; Roth 15 points; Tolbert and Sayles 10 points each; Watson 6 points; Sukar 2 points.

Maccabi head coach Pini Gershon: “I don’t have a lot of reasons to be satisfied.
We did the job.
We displayed all of our in a five minute period, and Ashkelon got back into the game.
We didn’t score for a few minutes, and we didn’t stop them, and they came back.
No, they didn’t come back – we brought them back.”

“Apart from those few minutes, the rest of the game depended on us.
In the second quarter we accumulated a lot of mistakes.
It’s a sign that things won’t come easily.
We’re only just starting to practice in Nokia this week and we’ve already got games coming up there.
Also, the preseason games in the U.S. won’t help us much here; and we have a game on Sunday against Panellinios to help us prepare for our first Euroleague game against Ljubljana (Union Olimpija).
Once we get through that, we’ll come to a period of preparation.
We’ll practice on the Knicks and the Clippers.”

When asked about point guard Andrew Wisniewski, who finished the game with no points, Gershon said, “I showed him three weeks ago that there’s such a thing as a hoop.
Now we just have to show him that it’s okay to shoot, and he’ll start scoring.
He’s a real team player.
I can’t say I’m happy about his lack of points, but when he needs to score, he will.”

“It was weird and exciting to play at Malha,” said former Hapoel Jerusalem player Guy Pnini, who heard some boos from the crowd when he came onto the court.
“Maccabi’s a team, and we’ve got some great players, both foreign and Israeli.
Whoever plays well will keep playing, that’s how it is for now.
We had a good game tonight.”

Ashkelon coach Ariel Bet Halhami: “Our game wasn’t too bad.
We got off to a weak start but we got back in the game.
We’re just getting started, and it happens that at the beginning of a season there are ups and downs.
I didn’t like it that we gave up in the last five minutes of the game, but overall the feeling is a good one because we had some good minutes.”

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