The war in Iraq had its impact on Maccabi’s games in the Euroleague and they were forced to switch the home game vs Virtus Bologna to the Paok Stadium in Thessaloniki. Only 200 spectators saw Maccabi dominate the game and win 98-71 against a team who missed some of their leading players.

Maccabi opened with 7-0. Virtus had some illusions when they made it 16-16. But Maccabi ran 11-0 and finished the first quarter 27-16 up. Maccabi led 38-21 in the second but then saw an 18-6 run by the team from Bologna and at the half Maccabi led 46-39. At the end of the third the score read 66-54 and Maccabi won the final period 32-17 and completed a double win over the Italians.

Very good game for captain Gur Shelef, Lior Lubin, David Bluthenthal and Beno Udrih. But once again Nikola Vujcic was Maccabi’s leading player. In 27 minutes he scored 22 pts with 75% FG and added 3 rbds, 2 assists & 1 BS.

In the second game in group F, Benetton Treviso beat TAU in Vitoria 84-75 .