2002-03Regular SeasonRound 2
October 17, 2002 CET: 00:00
Local time: 00:00 YAD ELIYAHU SPORTS PALACE

They were talking about a crisis when Maccabi lost a couple games in a row last week, but the Israeli champs and their 10,000 supporters had other ideas on Thursday. With Group B upstart Montepaschi Siena in town, Maccabi turned on its turbo boosters and didn't stop skyrocketing until it had a 107-81 blowout victory to show the Tel Aviv fans. All the Maccabi big guns came to play, with Marcus Goree leading them with 18 points. Tal Burstein had 17, Derrick Sharp fired in 16 and big men Nikola Vujcic and Huseyin Besok 15 and 12, respectively. Quincy Lewis had 12, too, and Beno Udrih 11. All that was necessary to hold back Siena's stars, including Mirsad Turkcan with 22 points, Dusan Vukcevic with 20 and Alphonso Ford with 16. The result draws both teams even in the Group B standings at 1-1.

Siena kept its head above water for the first 10 minutes, giving everything it got from Maccabi. If Goree was already getting his points inside for the home team, Roberto Chiacig was also busy under the basket for Siena and Alphonso Ford was warming up with three-pointers. Still, some trends were already developing, especially on the boards, where Maccabi's group effort, led by Besok and Vujcic, was limiting Siena. By the end of the half, Maccabi would enjoy as many offensive rebounds as Siena had on defense, a development that would lead by the conclustion of 40 minutes to Maccabi making a total of 76 field goal tries to just 47 for Siena. Still, in the early going, Siena was able to stay close at 20-21 after 10 minutes.

Things started to change actually late in the first quarter, when Derrick Sharp hopped off the bench for Maccabi. First, he put handcuffs on Ford, limiting his shots and forcing turnovers. On the offensive end, Sharp sparked Maccabi's first big run, 10-0, and ended up scoring 8 points in the second quarter and the home team surged ahead. Goree was unstoppable, too as his points pushed into double digits. And then Quincy Lewis punctuated the run with a four-point play, as he changed his three-pointer before shooting, drew a foul on Chiacig and sank the resulting free throw, too. When the quarter was over, Maccabi could boast an 11-point lead, 47-36, not to mention the same eadvantage in rebounds, 26-15.

The scoring didn't stop in the third quarter, for either side as it turned out, but that didn't let Siena get any closer. If Turkcan was back to doing what he does best for Siena, Vujcic had now recovered from a bad-shooting first half to pick up his end of the scoring spree. The points were pouring in at such a pace on both sides, that Siena was able to theaten from 6 points behind on a couple occasions in the third quarter. Vujcic ended one of those threats with 5 consecutive points and Beno Udrih ended the other, with two driving layups and a three-point assist to Sharp. That was the last play of the quarter and Maccabi still was up by 11, 74-63. The drama didn't last long in the fourth quarter as Udrih, Vujcic and Tal Burstein all rattled in three-pointers as the Maccabi lead rolled over 20 points. A basket by Vujcic crowned the evening by making it 93-71 and allowing the sea of Maccabi fans, so worried about their boys a week ago, celebrate for the final 5 minutes of a victory that put things right again in Tel Aviv.

Thursday, October 17, 2002
Eran Sela, Tel Aviv
No results found.
Referees: REMS, IZTOK; KOROMILAS, KOSTAS; RESSER, EFIM
Attendance: 10000
By Quarter1234
Maccabi Elite21262733
Montepaschi Siena20162718
End of Quarter1234
Maccabi Elite214774107
Montepaschi Siena20366381
Maccabi Elite
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 LUBIN, LIOR DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
5 LEWIS, QUINCY 29:00 12 2/5 1/4 5/5   2 2 1 2 1   1 4 3 8
6 SHARP, DERRICK 25:00 16 2/2 4/4   1 2 3 2 4 1     5 2 21
7 VUJCIC, NIKOLA 17:00 15 4/9 2/3 1/2 3 1 4 1 1 2     4 2 10
8 GOREE, MARCUS 34:00 18 7/11 1/3 1/3 5 4 9 1 1 2 1   3 4 21
9 SHELEF, GUR 11:00 2 1/1   0/1       1 1 1     3 1  
10 BURSTEIN, TAL 33:00 17 7/10 1/1 0/1 1 2 3 6 4 2     2 4 26
11 HALPERIN, YOTAM 3:00 3   1/1         1             4
12 SAFFAR, YOAV 7:00 1 0/1 0/2 1/2   1 1           3 1 -4
13 BLU, DAVID 2:00                   1         -1
14 UDRIH, BENO 20:00 11 4/5 1/3     1 1 9 1       3 1 17
15 BESOK, HUSEYIN 19:00 12 5/11   2/4 4 4 8   1 1     3 2 11
Team           2 2 4   4           8
Totals 200:00 107 32/55 11/21 10/18 16 19 35 22 19 11 1 1 30 20 121
        58.2% 52.4% 55.6%
Head coach: BLATT, DAVID
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Montepaschi Siena
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 ZUKAUSKAS, MINDAUGAS 21:00 2   0/1 2/2 1 1 2 1         3 1 2
6 TURKCAN, MIRSAD 37:00 22 4/10 2/2 8/14 2 6 8 2 2 2     4 9 25
7 MARCACCINI, GIANCARLO 3:00     0/1                       -1
8 VUKCEVIC, DUSAN 32:00 20 3/4 3/6 5/8   1 1 1   4     4 6 13
10 FORD, ALPHONSO 36:00 16 5/8 2/3   1 2 3 2 3 6     3 5 16
12 NOBILE, MATTEO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
13 SCARONE, GERMAN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
14 CHIACIG, ROBERTO 32:00 20 8/8   4/5 1 4 5 1   4 1 1 4 5 22
15 MAGGIOLI, MICHELE 10:00 1     1/2   1 1             2 3
18 MC CANTS, CURTIS 29:00     0/4     3 3 4   3     2 2  
Team           1 2 3   6           9
Totals 200:00 81 20/30 7/17 20/31 6 20 26 11 11 19 1 1 20 30 89
        66.7% 41.2% 64.5%
Head coach: ATAMAN, ERGIN
This game is not yet played

Head Coaches

BLATT, DAVID
Maccabi Elite
"We played a great game. Our offense was outsanding but I was not happy with our defense in the second half. We used 11 players and exploited the fact they only had seven players in their rotation. This is a very tough group and each game is like a play-off."
ATAMAN, ERGIN
Montepaschi Siena
"I can only salute Maccbi for the way they played. This is a better team than the one they had last season. I was worried about the match-up between Chiacig and Vujcic and that was really the key to Maccabi's game in the second half. Hopefully, when Stefanov will be back we will be more organized. We are considered the best defensive team in Italy so for us to concede 107 points is really bad."

Players

VUKCEVIC, DUSAN
Montepaschi Siena
"We played very badly in defense. This team should never let in more than 100 points. Maccabi played really well and dominated the game."
No results found.