Maccabi Tel Aviv last night (Sunday) maintained its gap at the top of the basketball Premier League thanks to an 88:96 victory over Hapoel Holon at Menorah Hall.
The Yellows increased their winning streak in the league to nine since losing to Hapoel Tel Aviv in the derby.
Last night's game was the most volatile that the Yellows have known this season.
They got off to a great start, hitting 7 threes out of 7 attempts, including 12 quick points from Wade Baldwin, and raced out to a 12-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, they did not hit or save, and saw Holon go down by 3 at halftime.
In the third quarter they woke up again, ran to 0:16 and dominated the game, but in the last quarter Holon reduced the difference again and almost turned the game around, but only almost.
Jerl Martin and John DiBartholomew led five players in double figures with 17 points with Bonzie Colson adding 15 of his own.
Great season.
Coulson with Sorkin (Photo: Danny Maron)
Maccabi Tel Aviv is making efforts to sign Colson to a new contract in the coming days.
The team has an option for another season on the forward, but the club wants to sign him for two more years with an option for a third season and the parties are getting closer to an agreement.
"It feels good on a night like this in terms of statistics, I saw some clips of the game against Zalgiris with Noam Levy, and I saw where I can be better and more efficient when I have to throw, be more consistent," said Coulson who finished with 6 of 6 from the field, "Obviously we play a lot games, but if we train here it contributes to all of us. I was at a good pace, my teammates found me and we knew how to win this game."
About last night's game, the forward said: "For me, it's hard to be consistent for 40 minutes, I told the players that it's hard to play against a team four times, they know the drills, you have to give them a lot of credit, they had runs, I don't want instability to happen to that, it's part of basketball , as long as we know how to answer those runs. We have to play our game, it's not an inconsistency."
Maccabi Tel Aviv will only know on Wednesday night how crowded their upcoming schedule of games will be.
The team will host Real Madrid on Thursday, and if Hapoel Tel Aviv does not get past Venice in the round of 16 of the Eurocup, they will play in the Tel Aviv derby on Sunday, otherwise their next league game will be against Hapoel Galil Iliyon next Tuesday.
sport
basketball
Super League
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Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball
Bonzie Coulson
