Report by Paz Hasdai, messenger of Walla!
Sports for Qatar, after Morocco's victory over Belgium (Photo: Paz Hasdai. Video editing: Aviad Belili)
Maccabi Tel Aviv's bad period also reached the league last night (Sunday) when the Yellows were stopped after five consecutive victories from the start of the season with an 80:75 home loss to Hapoel Jerusalem as part of the seventh round.
Maccabi Tel Aviv still leads the table, but with the same balance as Hapoel Tel Aviv, with Hapoel Jerusalem very close to them as well.
The Yellows came to the game without three important foreign players in the form of Lorenzo Brown, Alex Poithers and Bonzie Coulson that coach Oded Ketch decided not to register for the match to give them a rest, and especially Brown who is suffering from a minor leg injury.
Ketch chose to give another chance to Darren Hilliard who was weak once again, scored one point in 12 minutes and at the end tweeted in frustration: "Real eyes see real lies".
"Real eyes see real lies," Hilliard tweeted (Photo: Danny Maron)
The Yellows lagged behind Jerusalem throughout most of the stages of the game, and despite a comeback attempt led by Jarl Martin who was the best in the ranks of the team with 17 points, they were left with the loss.
Wade Baldwin contributed 15 points but did not play in the final minute as he is suffering from a muscle strain that will be tested today, on the players' off day.
Despite the loss, the team refused to take the game too hard: "We smelled it coming," Maccabi said at the end, "there is fatigue here that our crazy schedule created. It was the fifth game in eight days, and it was clear that we would fall off our feet at some point. We will have to regroup and come back For the game against Bayern on Friday in a much better way."
Jarl Martin added that: "We are a little flat, it hurt us at the end, we should have come with an attitude of giving the first punch and wanting this game more. We should have been better as a team, to be aggressive. I want to improve all the time, I'm looking for myself at the pace of the team, to find the way I can help the team."
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basketball
Super League
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Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball