Barcelona became the second team to beat Maccabi Tel Aviv and have started their Euroleague Top16 phase off to a positive note.

The game was balanced in the beginning with Perkins scoring two free throws for 7-7 but at that point Barcelona took over and a partial 10-0 run pulled away. With just Perkins seriously contributing in offense Maccabi couldn’t follow Barcelona’s pace and fell behind 21-16 at the end of first half.

In the second quarter Maccabi came back, slowly but steadily and after three minutes tied the game with Burstein scoring from the charity line, 27-27. The Israeli team even took the lead thanks to Perkins, 34-35. Barcelona fought back and took back the lead before heading to the locker rooms, 41-37.

Barcelona got off to a strong start in the second half, gaining a double digits lead, 49-39 thanks to a layup from former Maccabee, Morris. The points margin kept growing with Barcelona taking advantage of their inside arsenal, this time it was Vazquez with the layup to make the score 54-41. Maccabi couldn’t fight back and Morris drained a threepointer for 63-50 after three quarters.

Nothing changed much in the last quarter with Barcelona keeping a comfortable lead and Maccabi struggling to at least trim the points difference for the second round game. Schortsianitis tried to pull his weight put it was already too late as the final score of 81-71 meant the second defeat of the season, both against ACB teams, for the Tel Aviv club.