With the thousands of fans in yellow and blue in the stands this only meant one thing, Maccabi wants to make it into the finals for the league's championship game. Spahija's squad opened the game poised as they took the early lead, but the reds managed to finish the first quarter ahead. The yellows took control over the second quarter but Hapoel managed to stay close. An offensive and defensive clinic by Spahija's squad gave Maccabi the 98:74 win and the spot in the final for the first time in three years.
"We need to give credit to Hapoel Tel Aviv for what they did in the first half" said Coach Spahija, "This league is very competitive. My players and my assistants did a great job with the preparation, and we executed in the second half. Defensively we didn't gave them a chance in the second half, that's what won the game for us, I knew we would have to match their aggressiveness and then the talent will make the difference".
"After a long time Maccabi is in the finals, exactly where it needs to be", Coach Spahija added, "We have to make one more step, we will see tomorrow who's going to be our rival tomorrow. We did an amazing job to get to the finals. The players were very disciplined and played according to plan on both ends of the court we were the much better team today".
"We all played hard" said Alex Tyus who finished the game with MVP honors, "we came ready, in our last games I played more so I was ready and I tried to do whatever I can to help the team win. We'll put our focus on our next game and put this one behind us".
"We need to give credit to Hapoel Tel Aviv for what they did in the first half" said Coach Spahija, "This league is very competitive. My players and my assistants did a great job with the preparation, and we executed in the second half. Defensively we didn't gave them a chance in the second half, that's what won the game for us, I knew we would have to match their aggressiveness and then the talent will make the difference".
"After a long time Maccabi is in the finals, exactly where it needs to be", Coach Spahija added, "We have to make one more step, we will see tomorrow who's going to be our rival tomorrow. We did an amazing job to get to the finals. The players were very disciplined and played according to plan on both ends of the court we were the much better team today".
"We all played hard" said Alex Tyus who finished the game with MVP honors, "we came ready, in our last games I played more so I was ready and I tried to do whatever I can to help the team win. We'll put our focus on our next game and put this one behind us".