Maccabi Tel Aviv returned to the winning track last night (Thursday) after beating Valencia 68:84 in the Hall in the 12th round of the Euroleague and breaking a streak of two consecutive losses in the factory, with the help of a wonderful game by Lorenzo Brown, who led with 15 points and 6 assists and returned the his group to a balance of 6:6.
The yellows, who played for the first time in black uniforms, did not shine offensively for three quarters but kept the lead and with the help of a dominant last quarter of 21:31 in their favor, they managed to achieve their sixth home win of the season, just in time to go to the double week against Milan and Virtus Bologna.
"This victory shows an effort on the part of the players and a game plan that was successful, because Valencia lost 21 balls," noted Oded Ketch at the end.
"I liked the effort, the commitment and the fact that the adjustments we made against Valencia worked well for us. The game plan was to put pressure on them and due to the lack of Chris Jones. Sometimes you also have to go back to the basics, we also took advantage of their shortcomings and it worked."
Due to the injury of Alex Poithers and the developed style of play, this time Ketch went deep to the bench and received an impressive contribution from Jake Cohen in his best game of the season in the EuroLeague with 8 points and 5 rebounds, along with sacrifice and fighting on defense.
"No matter what happens, I always prepare for every game in a similar way and go up to play with a similar attitude, it doesn't matter to me if it's an Israeli league or a Euroleague, I'll try to contribute," Cohen shared his feelings at the end.
Jake Cohen.
His best game in the Euroleague this season, photo: Danny Maron
Another significant contribution from the bench was a catch from Darren Hilliard who returned to the floor in the middle of the second quarter after the suspension he received, received loud applause from the crowd, and returned with 11 points and 4 assists on the way to winning the man of the game award.
"I was happy to go back and play the game I love again, I was hoping that after what happened the fans would appreciate my effort and support me. This is without a doubt the hardest start to the season I've had with a team in my career but as a believer I'm sure everything happens for a reason, I wouldn't want to go through it again But I'm glad it's behind me," Hilliard shared.
Hilliard.
Back in a big way, photo: Danny Maron
Despite the victory, what clouded the joy was the repeated injury of Baldwin, who, unfortunately for the Yellows, once again felt pain in his hamstring and abandoned the match in the third quarter, when he may miss several games.
At the end of the game, Oded Ketch sounded pessimistic regarding Baldwin's injury: "He won't be with us in the near future, I hope I'm wrong, but his injury doesn't look good. We'll probably have to deal without him in the coming week."
Oded Ketch's apprentices don't have much time to rest and in two days they will host the Herzliya men at the Menorah Mivathim Hall as part of the ninth round of the Winner League.
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