Last season Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv did the “double” over Unicaja Malaga. This time they traveled to Spain after the 86-89 loss in Yad Eliyahu. But this time it was Bozidar Maljkovic team that camet on top with a 76-68 win.
An excellent first quarter ended with Maccabi leading 23-19. They increased it to 27-22 but saw Unicaja lead 39-38 at the half, mainly due to Frenchman Stephane Risacher who had already 21 pts, including 5 three pointers. The home team dominated the third period (22-14) and had a 13 pts (70-57) lead in the final quarter. Maccabi only managed to reduce the margin to 8 pts at the end of Unicaja scored 14 three pointers in 56% whiolst Maccabi had 8 three pointers in 50%. Risacher was the MVP with 29 pts (6-8 for three) & 6 rbds.
The other games in Group B were also home wins: Olimpija Ljubljana beat Zalgiris Kaunas 76-55. Andres Nocioni (32 pts & 9 rbds) led TAU Vitoria to a 103-86 win over Buducnost & Panathinaikos beat Montepaschi Siena 64-56.
