Maccabi stormed into the playoffs and beat the home of Monaco with a “good evening”

She started the series ideally and with an emphatic break with Monacotaking the most important first step towards qualifying for the Final-4 of this year’s Euroleague Maccabi Tel Aviv!

The Israelis showed a very good game face on both sides of the floor, had a solid lead, controlled the pace of the match and finally celebrated the big win with 79-67and with the “good evening” they took the home advantage from the Monacos, who finished the night with only 4/26 three-pointers!

Top for the winners are Baldwin (20 points, 6 assists, 6 rebounds), Lorenzo Brown (15pts, 4 assists) and Nimbo (12 points, 8 rebounds), while for Monaco 15 points were scored by Mike James and Dialo.

The match

The match started with Monaco coming out stronger, allowing the Maccabi scoring just two points in the first three minutes of the game and taking a 6-2 lead. The visitors then responded and tied the game at 10-10 thanks to two consecutive 3-pointers by Colson, while Maccabi took its first lead of the match, 13-10. James scored six points of his own to put Monaco back in front, but Boldwin hit a 3-pointer from 8 meters late in the first period for the 16-18 in favor of the Israelis.

The second quarter started with Maccabi having found a rhythm as well Monaco to struggle, without finding solutions to her attack. Thus, the guests made the biggest difference in their favor in the match (18-24), with a short run of 6-2, before the home team got closer to the basket (22-24). With Baldwin and Brown as protagonists, Maccabi led 34-27 in the 27th minute, with the Monegasques getting within “breathing distance” (33-36) by the end of the first half, despite being 0/10 from 3-pointers at that point in the game.

THE Maccabi entered with the foot on the gas in the third period as well, returning from the locker room with an 11-3 run, thanks to which they also made their first double-digit difference of the game (36-47). THE Monaco scored only her first three-pointer in the first 3.5 minutes of the second half, continued to have her best players off the pace, cutting just 50-60 at the end of the third quarter.

Brown, Colson and Baldwin gave Maccabi a 16 (!) point lead (50-66) at the start of the fourth quarter, with Monaco closing the gap to single digits (57-66) with back-to-back James points. However, this was also the last substantial attempt of the home team to get closer, with the Maccabi to answer with a 21-11 run for the final 67-79! The second meeting between the two teams is scheduled for next Thursday (27-4, 21:45), again in the Principality.

The quarters: 16-18, 33-36, 50-60, 67-79

The match statistics