Maccabi Next Urban Haifa uses a second half surge to keep its chances for 2nd place

Maccabi Next Urban Haifa used a strong second half performance in order to get a win in Group D of Delasport Balkan League. The Israelis visited TFT in Skopje and took 93-73 victory to go to a 2-3 record. They have one less win than Balkan and need to defeat TFT on April 2nd and to hope that Balkan will lose both of its remaining games to finish second. Otherwise, Maccabi will be third and will be playing the 2nd placed team from Group C in the ¼ finals. In the meantime, that loss for TFT means that the team will be eliminated from the competition. They now have 0-4 record and can’t move up from fourth position.

In tonight’s game the hosts started well as thanks to a 13-2 run in the middle of the first quarter took a 10-point lead. Maccabi tried to respond but after ten minutes the hosts led by 9 points. Maccabi found its rhythm in the second period and started coming back. The visitors used some runs to not only close the gap but even to take the lead as they were up by 2 at the break.

The decisive run of the game happened near the end of the third quarter when 9 points in a row by the visitors broke a tied score. After 30 minutes the difference went to 11 points while early in the fourth it was increased to 21 and the visitors had no problems after.

Maccabi scored 11 triples from 25 attempts for 44% while the hosts were 4 of 30 for just 13.3% which was too big of a difference and had a big effect on the outcome.

The winners were led by Steve Taylor who had a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds. Kwame Vaughn was able to finish with 17 points and 6 assists while Raphniel Putney had 16 points and 9 rebounds.

Strahil Nikolov had a very good game for the hosts as he ended with 21 points. Amir Smith added 14 points and 6 rebounds while Landrius Horton had 12 and 6.

BOXSCORE