When they put together a completely new team at Maccabi Tel Aviv this summer, they imagined that it would take time for the team to bond, but they also did not want to end the preparation period with a record of one win compared to four losses.
Last night (Saturday) Oded Ketch's yellow team met the European champion Anadolu Eps in the match for the third place in the Yiankopoulos tournament, and surrendered 87:81.
Ketch's apprentices fell into an early hole of 24 points, managed to narrow the gap and make a comeback but finally succumbed to the Turkish opponent.
"In the second quarter we lost it. What bothered me more than anything was the spirit, I think somewhere we broke down. We also have to learn from that, and that's what I said at halftime. We don't always have to play the result, we'll have ups and downs but we'll have to learn from them," stated a coach Maccabi Tel Aviv Oded Ketch.
Maccabi Tel Aviv players. Not there yet, photo: PAOB
Despite the loss, the yellows also marked good things that can be taken further and from which you can learn.
"We played day after day against a good team. We started the game well, we won all quarters except for the second and we knew how to come back from a big deficit, it was a very strange game," Ketch added.
The team liked to see the fact that the players did not give up despite an early deficit of 24 points, and continued to fight until the end.
"I am very happy that the players reacted well, and this is how we will find our identity as a team, to be much tougher, not only in the body and muscles, but also in the mind," concluded the yellow coach.
The club knows that they have a lot of work ahead of them to consolidate the squad quickly because the opening of the Euroleague season is already around the corner, but they mark the preparatory tournament in Greece as an important step on the way to the goal.
"This is a new team, until a certain leadership is built here, until players become more vocal, these are exactly the experiences we needed to become better, but we still have a long way to go," said the team.
Nivo goes up to the basket.
There is still a lot of work, photo: PAOB
In the team, the performance of Wade Baldwin, who led the yellow team's scorers with 20 points, was marked positively, alongside a personally successful evening for center Josh Niebo, who closed the preparatory tournament with a double-double of 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Now the team will return to Israel and begin its preparations for the quarter-finals of the Winner Cup where it will meet in two days the renewed Hapoel Gilboa/Galil of Rami Hadar in the new Enerbox hall in Hadera to fight for the second place in the semi-finals of the factory.
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