He made an upset in Belgrade and Maccabi hopes for qualification

With a stunning 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter, Maccabi Tel Aviv pulled off the upset and defeated Red Star Belgrade 84-80 in Game 29 of the EuroLeague, climbing to ninth place with a 16-13 record in the attempt to enter in the play ins, leaving the “red and whites” of the Serbian capital at 10-19 in 16th place.

Giannis Sfeiropoulos’ men got up to +16 at halftime and +8 at the end of the third period, but an 11-0 run to start the fourth period gave Maccabi a 70-63 lead and held on to a narrow lead until the end with More options.

The leaders of the Israelis were Colson with 23, Nimbo with 18 and Baldwin with 14 points. For the Serbs, Dos Santos stood out with 20, Hanga with 13, Smart with 12 and Boloboi with 11 points.

The match

With an amazing Boloboi, Asteras led 9-3 at the start of the match with the right moves inside the basket of the Israelis, who finally found the solutions inside the racket with the many assists and the right choices of the tall ones for the 6-0 run and the 9-9. Boloboi kept the lead for the Serbs against the attacking polyphony of the “people’s team”. Baldwin’s 3-pointer put Oded Katas up 1, but a 5-0 run by the home team ended the first quarter at 21-17.

With a 6-0 run at the start of the second period, Asteras reached 28-20 with several offensive options inside the Israeli racket. Smart’s 3-pointer made it 31-22 and a 5-0 run by the Serbs made it 38-24 on Oded Katas’ poor defense. Dos Santos’ 3-pointer brought +16 and Hanga +17, with Mitrovic ending the half at 47-31 in the effort to reduce by the Israelis.

Dos Santos made it 49-31 at the start of the third period and he maintained +14 in the Israeli counterattack, with Cleveland reducing to -12 for champion Israel. Baldwin “woke up” and with a 6-0 run reduced it to 55-47 for the “people’s team”, with the difference going up and down to +8 to +10 in that time. Cleveland cut to -6, but Mitrovic made it 61-53 at the end of the quarter.

Colson went into the fourth quarter “furious” and fueled a 6-0 run for a 61-59 lead. With an amazing Nimbo and a worthy supporter offensively, Baldwin, Maccabi went on an 11-0 run and took a 70-63 lead. Asteras with a 4-0 run reduced the score to 67-70 and Davidovac’s three-pointer reduced the score to 70-72 at 2’57”. Colson’s three-pointer made it 70-75 and Hanga’s three-pointer cut the deficit to 2:09. Colson made it 75-80 at 1’41”, Giedraitis cut it to 77-80 at 1’15” and Di Bartolomeo’s 3-pointer at 14” made it 77-83, Giedraitis’ 3-pointer cut it to 80 -83 at 5”, but Colson’s shot made the final 80-84.

The quarters: 21-17, 47-31, 61-53, 80-84

The statistics