The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to the round of 16.
By ALLON SINAIMaccabi Tel Aviv’s (from left) Sylven Landesberg, Taylor Rochestie and Dragan Bender had every reason to drop their heads last night following a 91-56 defeat to Maccabi Haifa at Romema Arena.(photo credit: ERAN LUF)
Maccabi Tel Aviv’s disastrous season hit a new low on Saturday night with a 91-56 mauling at the hands of Maccabi Haifa at Romema Arena.The yellow-and-blue suffered its heaviest defeat in history in local action, scoring its fewest points in a game since 1966.Maccabi was thoroughly outplayed from start to finish, scoring just 20 points in the first half to enter the break down by 23 points (43-20).Matters only deteriorated for Tel Aviv in the second half, with the hosts running riot and embarrassing their helpless opponents.Tel Aviv fell to a 13-6 record in the BSL with its fifth defeat from the past seven games over all competitions and enters Wednesday’s decisive Eurocup encounter against Nizhny Novgorod in complete disarray.The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to the round of 16.Maccabi was playing without Devin Smith, Brian Randle and Trevor Mbakwe on Saturday, but that was no excuse for its apathetic display.The yellow-and-blue ended the night shooting 16-of-37 from two-point range (43%), 5-of-23 (22%) from beyond the arc and 9-of-19 (47%) from the free-throw line.New signing Elijah Millsap led Tel Aviv with 15 points.John Dibartolomeo had 22 points for Haifa, with Gregory Vargas adding 21 points and 10 assists and Will Graves scoring 17.
“I know they are Maccabi Tel Aviv and are a great team so everybody stayed focus and we implemented the coach’s game-plan,” said Vargas.Haifa shot 20-of-34 from two-point range (59%) and 13-of-25 from beyond the arc (52%).“I think this is the result of all our hard work,” said Haifa coach Rami Hadar. “We had a great game.”Earlier Saturday, Hapoel Tel Aviv came back from 21-points down to beat Bnei Herzliya 90-89 in overtime.Herzliya led 35-14 midway through the second period, but Hapoel closed to within three points (53-50) by the end of the third quarter and the game went to overtime after both teams failed to capitalize on opportunities to win the game in the final minute of regulation. There was still little to separate the teams in the extra period, with Hapoel clinching the win thanks to Raviv Limonad’s jumper with 2.2 seconds to play.John Williamson finished with 27 points for Hapoel, with James Singleton having 20 points and 10 boards for Herzliya.