Maccabi Tel Aviv sweated last night (Sunday) at the Menorah Mitvahim Hall for fifty minutes against Hapoel Haifa but finally returned to the winning track with a home victory after two overtimes with a score of 104:108 thanks to a wonderful game by Jaylen Adams and Bonzie Coulson, at the end of one of the most exciting games of the last few years .
Forty-eight hours after the painful defeat to Real Madrid away in the Euroleague, Oded Ketch's apprentices returned to the floor and their home court and met Sharon Drucker's team.
They met the northerners only five days ago in a make-up game from the first round, and they easily beat them with a score of 59:80 in Romme, but this time a different opera awaited them, and it seemed that the result from the first meeting made them a little complacent.
"It's hard to sum up this game. We felt from the beginning of the game that we were very tense and tired after returning from Madrid and the game against Haifa last week did not help us prepare for this," shared Oded Ketch honestly at the end.
We conceded 55 points in the first half, we didn't use fouls and we weren't focused, and Haifa came into the game with an attitude that they can't lose."
Oded Ketch.
"Haifa showed up to the game with a can't lose attitude", photo: Oded Karni
In contrast to the competition in Rome last week, when the northerners were stopped at 59 points in the entire game, yesterday in the hall they scored 55 after only twenty minutes of basketball, when Devonte Epson, who was not registered for the first game between the teams, provided the goods tonight and rewarded his coach for his trust with 21 points and 9 rebounds, but were stopped offensively in the second half and allowed the Yellows, led by Bonzie Coulson and Jaylen Adams, to turn the game around and send the game to overtime.
After no decision was reached, the teams went to another overtime, where the depth and quality of the yellows prevailed, in a game that reminded the hall's residents of the previous confrontation between the teams last season, which was also decided after two overtimes.
The club expressed satisfaction with the change in energy and attitude presented by the players in the second half, after going into the break trailing by 14. "In the second half we returned to the game but we didn't expect the players to play so many minutes in the game, we wanted to save some strength. We fought and the best thing you can take from this game is the victory. In the end, it's good that we won, but I didn't like the way we played. We came into the game arrogant and almost paid for it, it's better to learn the lesson after a victory."
Bonzie Colson, who was chosen as the outstanding player of the game with a double-double of 25 points and 10 rebounds, shared his feelings at the end: "I think it will be our and my first time at least in this kind of game but it was fun there and the atmosphere was great. It showed the heart of the team and what we are can do. It was a great win at the end of the day."
The Yellows don't have much time to recover for the next game when already on Wednesday Partizan Belgrade will arrive at the Menorah Mivathim Hall, while two days later the Yellows will play in Athens against the Greek Panathinaikos.
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