Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv eventually ran away from Fenerbahce to secure a deserved 87-77 victory in round seven of the EuroLeague.
Sonny Weems led the way with 22 points for Maccabi in an emotionally charged battle in front of the usual packed house of 11,060 in the Menora Mivtachim Arena. Maccabi improved to 3-4 and after breaking a streak of two straight losses, Weems hopes that this victory will turn the tide.
“I think we just got tired of losing,” he said. “We came out as a unit and got a great team win for our fans. There’s no doubt that it was mainly a mental issue, because everybody knows the talent level we have. I hope we can continue to build on this going forward. We still have a lot of work to do.”
Fenerbahce dropped to 4-3 as they drop their third consecutive game.
A score from Charles Jenkins with 24 seconds remaining handed Crvena Zvezda a thrilling 79-78 road win against Brose Baskets.
Bamberg had the chance to steal the win in the dying seconds but under intense pressure, Darius Miller couldn’t convert the hosts’ last-second chance to win, despite coach Andrea Trincheri’s plea that Miller was fouled on the play.
“It was a big success for us,” said Red Star coach Dejan Radonjic. “We played very well on defence during the first half, we scored some easy points in transition offence. I expected in the second half more from Bamberg and they played excellent in the third quarter, although it was a disaster for us on defence.
“After that we got better on offence and defence and, at the end, one good defence gave us the success.”
Veterans Milko Bjelica and Marko Simonovic were the stand-out performers, scoring 18 and 17 points respectively for the winners.
After being on such a high last week with a convincing win over Fenerbahce, Baskonia have come back down to earth with a thud as they followed up their loss in the Liga Endesa to Valencia with an 88-76 defeat to EA7 Milano in the fashion capital.
Both teams hold 4-3 records after a game in which Milan took the lead for good with a 13-2 run to end the first quarter and immediately increased the advantage some more, as the margin never went back into single-digits for the remainder of the night.
Rakim Sanders paced the hosts with 19 points.
Anadolu Efes got back to winning ways as they held off a late Unics Kazan charge to claim a 104-99 win in Istanbul.
Thomas Heurtel starred with 24 points and eight assists as Efes smashed its club record for assists with 34 and improve to 3-4 after seven games.
