Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv will try to continue their excellent momentum, as they head out to Italy to face Olimpia Milano on Tuesday night (21:45, live on channel Sport5), as part of the 9th EuroLeague fixture. The Yellow & Blue come into this rough road stretch leading the EuroLeague's standings, as they hold an impressive 12 game winning streak in all competitions.

The contest against Milano will be a special one for all basketball lovers, as Maccabi will match up against two basketball legends. Ettore Messina, one of the best European coaches of all times and four-time EuroLeague champion, came back to the top European stage after five seasons as an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.

The second legend is the Argentinan Luis Scola, which at the age of 39, head back to the EuroLeague scene after being chosen three times to the All-EuroLeague selection with Tau Ceramica in the previous decade. This past summer, he starred for Argentina winning the silver medal at the World Cup in China, where he was named to the all-tournament team. 



"I don't want to think if we are in the best shape in Europe right now", Said Giannis Sfairopoulos to reporters before the flight. "I only want to think about the way to play the next game, and the most important thing is to continue to stay focused and keep following the gameplan. Milano is an excellent team that is undefeated at their home court, we will need to remain focused on being consistent for all 40 minutes of the game. If you lose your concentration against them for a minute or two, they will punish". 

"We need our players who will play individually against Rodriguez and Mack to be very concentrated, to follow the plan we instruct them", Related coach on how to stop the Italian guards. "We also need to play good team defense around them because sometimes you need to bring extra help, so the whole team needs to be ready to follow the defensive tactics. We know they count a lot on their three-point shooting, and we need to be focused on stopping that".

"Milan is a good team, and we have to approach it like any other game, come out focused, stick to our gameplan, and be ready to fight", Said Quincy Acy about the keys for the matchup against the reds. "The key for us defensively is bounding on the coach's scheme, and the players have each others back. We are competing, we need to have that same mindset going into every game, that's how we are going to win. As long as we are doing that, we can compete at a high level.

The captain John DiBartolomeo spoke towards the interesting week ahead: "Obviously this is another challenge for us, we need to continue to play good basketball like we've had been in late, but up to this point in the EuroLeague, Milano has been one of the top teams, so we look forward to taking the next step for us. We go into every game prepared to win, it is going to be a challenging week as Milano and Barcelona are two of the top teams right now, but now we are focused on going to Milan and playing our best basketball".

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After a 12 game winning streak in all competitions, Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv took the loss Tuesday, 88:92 to Armani Milano, as their record falls to 6:3. The Yellow & Blue fell into a double-digit deficit at the start of the fourth quarter, never gave up, but their comeback attempt was too late. Scottie Wilbekin led the Israeli champions with 25 points, Tarik Black had a good game almost ending his night with a double-double (13 points and 9 rebounds). On Friday (22:00, live on channel Sport5), Maccabi heads out to another rough road game, this time against Barcelona.

The Yellow & Blue opened the contest with Nate Wolters, Scottie Wilbekin, Elijah Bryant, Jake Cohen, and Tarik Black in their starting five. Maccabi found it difficult early, not scoring a shot from beyond the three-point line the whole first quarter. On the other end, Kaleb Tarczewski and Luis Scola gave Sfairopoulos's squad a lot of trouble under the baskets (5/8 rebounds), luckily Hunter scored a pair of point late, to provide his team a 21:21 tie, after ten minutes.



With the start of the second quarter, it seemed like the visitors found a rhythm, as they went on a 9:2 run to build its biggest advantage so far. However, the dynamic duo of Rodriguez and Scola carried the Italians back into the game to give the hosts the lead. Wolters tried to minimize the damage with an excellent offensive display that made him Maccabi's top scorer in the first half, but the visitors didn't find answers to stop Scola and Rodriguez (9 points & 7 assists) who helped Milano take a 47:42 lead, going into the half.

The hosts got off to a fantastic start in the second half, as Vladimir Micov joined the duo to give Milano a double-digit advantage. Scottie Wilbekin rained three's from all over the court to lead the visitors to an 11:2 run that reduced the home team's margin. Still, the Italians set the tone going into the final quarter, scoring eight unanswered points, on its way to a 71:64 lead.

Milano kept on the momentum from the third quarter as they gave Maccabi a hard time, ramping up their run to 13:0. However, the Yellow & Blue would not lie down, Wilbekin continued his tear, hitting his 5th three-pointer of the night to cut down the deficit. On the other end, Scola struck again to increase the host's lead as the time went against the visitors. Eventually, Maccabi ends their winning streak in Italy, 88:92.

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