Get back to business. Brown and Manco (Photo: Danny Maron)
Maccabi Tel Aviv rose to a 0-1 advantage in the playoff semifinal series against Hapoel Holon on Tuesday night after beating them 76:90 at home. The Yellows are one win away from the final series from which they were absent last season, and will try to complete the task this Friday in Holon.
Maccabi started the game poorly, falling behind by double digits in the first quarter, but managed to come out of it with a minimal lag of only 4 points. The second quarter was excellent for the Yellowjackets, who scored 28 points, conceded just 18 and took control of the game, thanks in large part to big minutes from Roman Sorkin. At the start of the second half, Holon again gained the advantage, but good minutes from Wade Baldwin who scored 20 points and Bonzi Coulson who scored 17 points and added 12 rebounds secured the victory. Besides those two, Lorenzo Brown also excelled with 15 points and 11 assists.
During the second quarter of the game, there was an incident with guard Darren Hilliard having trouble getting into the game, being replaced and then kicking the bench nerves and starting to descend towards the locker room. Hilliard quickly came to his senses, returned to the bench and was involved in the second half. The group will hold a conversation with Hilliard today, after which it will be decided how to deal with him. Hilliard scored just 3 points in 12 minutes.
Again in the eye of the storm. Hilliard (Photo: Danny Maron)
Roman Sorkin was Maccabi's man in the second quarter, finishing with 13 points in 21 minutes. "We had to stop them defensively, which we didn't do at first. We have an advantage in offensive rebounding, but the defense will win the series for us," Sorkin said, referring to Oded Ketch's comments that the main job with him is to make him understand that he's good at basketball: "It's fun to be pushed to be better, I need that sometimes. I look less at myself, we have three more wins to achieve to meet our most important goal, bread and butter. There are amazing teams in the league, that's what we came together for, that's a goal. I'm going to try to be better to help my team."
Sorkin continued: "I play and try to get into the rhythm of the team, Oded always talks about the rhythm, the floo, even if I don't score, I still try to create for my friends, create mismatches, play according to the system. I'm glad I can do that sometimes, I have to stay consistent."
On Maccabi's better performance last night after a lesser series against Be'er Sheva, Sorkin said: "At every stage you try to push more, on paper you get a better team that has momentum. You have to give respect to Be'er Sheva, they have a great coach with a system, it's a quality team that made it difficult for us. We've gone through a phase and we're trying to take our game to the next level. We will try to take it a step further in the final as well. Getting better from game to game is part of the playoffs."
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At its best. Sorkin (Photo: Danny Maron)
Ahead of Game 2 in Holon, Sorkin admitted: "It's hard to play there, there's a lot of noise and a lot of mess. Our fans come with us everywhere, you hear them at away games, from the Galilee to Eilat. It helps us, Holon is a tough court but in the end it's basketball. It's hard to play an away game, we'll try to neutralize those things and concentrate on our plan and hopefully come back with a win."
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