Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv traveled to the game in Slovenia without Theo Papaloukas, David Blu, Devin Smith, and Sofo Schortsanitis, all of whom remained in Israel to rest and train with assistant coach Derrick Sharp. Even with the reduced roster, Maccabi handily defeated Helios Domžale 71 – 53. Eliyahu led Maccabi’s scorers with 13 points and 6 rebounds; team captain Tal Burstein added 13 points, and Guy Pnini and Richard Hendrix each contributed 10 points.

Maccabi’s head coach David Blatt gave the nod to Demond Mallet, Keith Langford, Richard Hendrix, Yogev Ohayon and Lior Eliyahu. Mallet kicked things off with a three pointer (assist Ohayon) and within a minute and a half Maccabi had jumped to a 7 – 0 lead. Blaž Črešnar and Klemen Prepelić finally put points on the board for the hosts, who went on to tie the score at 11 with four minutes left in the period. Shawn James rejected what could have been the go-ahead basket for the home team, and Maccabi retook the lead off points by Langford and James, who slammed down a dunk off a dish from Jon Scheyer. The quarter ended with Maccabi up by five, 20 – 15.

Helios tied the score at 20 three minutes into the second quarter, which got off to a very slow start. Hendrix put the lead back in Maccabi’s hands, and Langford and Eliyahu added to the score. But the hosts didn’t give up, and with just under two minutes left in the period Helios took the lead for the first time in the game, 27 – 26. Burstein added a layup and 1 and James nailed two from the foul line to end the half with Maccabi leading 31 – 29.

It took Helios less than ten seconds to tie the score at 31 as the third quarter got underway, but two straight layups by Pnini were followed by two straight steals + coast-to-coast layups by Ohayon, and Helios called for a timeout with Maccabi up 39 – 31. Burstein added a stop and pop and Ohayon grabbed yet another steal but failed to make the layup; luckily James was there with the putback dunk that put Maccabi’s lead into double digits, 43 – 33 with four minutes gone. Eliyahu and Hendrix further extended Maccabi’s lead, 48 – 35 with four minutes left in the period. Sandi Čebular sank a three pointer for Helios, but Maccabi went on a 10 – 0 scoring run courtesy of Eliyahu, Pnini, Hendrix and Ohayon. Hendrix’s dunk (assist Mallet) brought the point difference to twenty, 58 – 38 with about a minute and a half remaining; by the time the quarter had ended the score was 60 – 43.

After the excitement of the third period, the pace of the game dropped dramatically in the fourth quarter. James and Burstein scored for Maccabi while the home team continued to make an effort, but halfway through the period the score had only advanced to 65 – 46. The high point of the quarter was when young Idan Zalmanson came into the game for Maccabi and scored under the basket with three minutes left on the clock to make it 69 – 48. In the end, Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv came away with a 71 – 53 victory over Helios Domžale in the Adriatic League.

BOXSCORE

Maccabi: Eliyahu 13 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, 1 block; Burstein 12 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block; Hendrix 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal; Pnini 10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists; James 8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks; Langford 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal; Ohayon 6 points, 4 steals, 2 rebounds, 1 assist; Mallet 3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals; Zalmanson 2 points; Scheyer 1 assist, 1 steal.

Top scorer for Helios Domžale: Pašalić 15 points.

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