Maccabi Tel Aviv faced absolutely no problems in downing visiting Lottomatica Roma with 99-58, behind 19 points of Sofoklis Schortsanitis and 18 by Lior Eliyahu.
The Greek giant was unstoppable in the paint from the beginning on, giving his team a comfortable 12-point lead (30-18) after the first 10 minutes and setting the scenery for Maccabi’s trot to victory. Yet it wasn’t just Big Sofo in good shape. In the second quarter Jeremy Pargo and Doron Perkins took over for the hosts, speeding up the pace and skyrocketing the margin to over 20 points for the final 57-31 of the first half.
And while Maccabi relaxed a bit in the third quarter scoring “only” 18 points, the visitors were unable to give theirs hosts any trouble despite Vladimit Dasic and Nihad Djedovic trying their best. Lior Eliyahu took over in the final quarter, scoring the best part of his 18 points in that time-frame, while Head Coach David Blatt, even gave playing time to 39-year old Maccabi legend Derrick Sharp as his team’s lead was well over 40 points meanwhile.
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Sofoklis Schortsanitis scored 19 and downed 10 rebounds for an index rating of 28. Jeremy Pargo added 16 (24 index rating), while Doron Perkins came relatively close to a triple-double with 9 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists for an index rating of 20. Maccabi’s coach also gave about 13 minutes of playing time to the club’s latest acquisition, Milan Macvan, who made the best of it scoring 6 points.
For the guests Vladimir Dasic had 13 points and 7 rebounds and Nihad Djedovic and Ali Traore added 10 apiece.
