2019-20Regular SeasonRound 3
October 16, 2019 CET: 18:30
Local time: 19:30 MACCABI SPORTS HALL

Rishon fend off Monaco comeback for first EuroCup victory

Maccabi Rishon LeZion made history by fending off an AS Monaco comeback for a 77-72 victory - its first-ever win in the 7DAYS EuroCup. Alex Hamilton led the way with 22 points and 8 assists and Johnathan Williams had 17 points and 10 rebounds in helping Rishon move to 1-2 in Group A play in its maiden season in the competition. Darryl Monroe added a double-double of his own with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Jordan Swing chipped in 12 points as the Israeli League runner-up turned the game around with a 16-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters before surviving Monaco’s furious late comeback. Monaco dropped its first game of the season to fall to 2-1 despite Dee Bost scoring 18 points with Anthony Clemmons tallying 13 points and Yakaba Ouattara hitting for 10 points.

Eric Buckner opened the scoring for the visitors before Rishon went on a 12-0 run with Monroe and Hamilton both hitting three-pointers. Hamilton added 2 more baskets in increasing the gap to 16-5. Hamilton and Monroe struck again to make it 20-7 before Bost and Ouattara hit three-pointers to pull Monaco to within 24-17 after 10 minutes. After the hosts tallied 6 straight points to push the gap to 30-19, Clemmons responded with two baskets in trimming it to 30-26. Three-pointers by Hamilton and Swing at one end were matched by a pair of threes from Bost before Jaleel O’Brien’s score drew Monaco within 40-38. The lead was 43-40 at the break. Monaco came up with the better start to the second half with Paul Lacombe scoring 4 points in a 2-8 run for a 45-48 lead. Swing’s triple evened things and then Williams tallied 6 points in a 10-0 surge with Monaco failing to score in the final 4:22 minutes of the third quarter and trailing 58-50. Hamilton’s 4 free throws and a Monroe basket extended the advantage to 64-50 with Monaco unable to score until the 7:21 minute mark of the final frame - ending a 7-minute scoring drought. Oz Blayzer’s free throws made it 66-51 and Williams stretched the margin to 68-54 with less than 4 minutes to go. Monaco had one last charge and made things interesting with Outtara completing a four-point play and Buckner getting an and-one before Clemmons and Outtara hit triples to cut the deficit to 70-68. Monroe followed with a putback and Hamilton made 4 straight free throws down the stretch to stave off the comeback.

History made

Rishon had lost its first two games in its first season in the EuroCup: dropping 88-55 at home against Promitheas Patras in the opening week and then 96-77 at Segafredo Virtus Bologna in Round 2.

Pivotal performer

Alex Hamilton did a lot of everything for Rishon with 22 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field and a perfect 10-of-10 from the foul line. He also had 5 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks and 10 fouls drawn for a performance index rating of 38.

Telling numbers

Rishon shot 52.6 percent from two-point range compared to 41.5% for Monaco.

Next games

Rishon will look to make it two straight victories on Tuesday, October 22 when it hosts MoraBanc Andorra. Monaco will look to bounce back as it hosts ratiopharm Ulm the following night.

Alex Hamilton - Maccabi Rishon Lezion (photo Rishon) - EC19
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Eurocupbasketball.com
Referees: RYZHYK, BORYS; RADOJKOVIC, JOSIP ; ISGUDER, SINAN
Attendance: 1913
By Quarter1234
Maccabi Rishon LeZion24191519
AS Monaco17231022
End of Quarter1234
Maccabi Rishon LeZion24435877
AS Monaco17405072
Maccabi Rishon LeZion
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MISHAN, LIAD DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
7 SWING, JORDAN 33:57 12 2/5 2/5 2/4   4 4 3   1 1   2 2 11
11 ARIEL, ADAM 22:54 7 1/3 1/3 2/3   2 2   1 3       3 5
14 BLAYZER, OZ 15:28 2   0/2 2/2   3 3   1 1     4 1  
19 WILLIAMS, JOHNATHAN 22:34 17 7/10 0/1 3/8 3 7 10     3 1   3 6 19
23 CHUBREVICH, ALEX 10:50           1 1   2 1     2    
25 BALOUL, NIV DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
30 TISHMAN, NIMROD DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
41 DOVRAT, NOAM 28:06 4 2/5 0/2           1 5   1 4 1 -9
42 HAMILTON, ALEX 34:46 22 3/5 2/4 10/10 1 4 5 8 2 6 3   2 10 38
55 SHEDLETSKY, OMRI DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
86 MONROE, DARRYL 31:25 13 5/10 1/1   1 9 10 5 1 2     2 1 21
Team           1 3 4               4
Totals 200:00 77 20/38 6/18 19/27 6 33 39 16 8 22 5 1 19 24 89
        52.6% 33.3% 70.4%
Head coach: GOODES, GUY
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
AS Monaco
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 BOST, DEE 32:05 18 4/6 3/10 1/3   4 4 4 2 3     3 3 14
5 CLEMMONS, ANTHONY 22:15 13 3/4 1/7 4/4 1 1 2   5 2   1 4 4 10
6 LACOMBE, PAUL 11:42 6 1/3 0/1 4/4 1 4 5   1 1     2 2 8
14 TILLIE, KIM 18:05 1   0/1 1/2 1 2 3 1 1       2 2 4
15 YEGUETE, WILFRIED 7:07 1 0/2   1/2 1 2 3           1 1 1
22 O'BRIEN, JALEEL 18:15 5 2/6   1/2 2   2 1   2   1 1 1  
23 BUCKNER, ERIC 22:38 8 3/3   2/5 2 4 6 1 1 4     3 4 10
24 OUATTARA, YAKUBA 26:15 10 0/5 3/5 1/1   3 3 4 1       2 1 10
25 BUVA, IVAN 8:05 2 0/1   2/2   2 2   1 3     2 1  
31 ENNIS, DYLAN 28:18 6 3/10 0/4   4 5 9 5 2 1 1 3 4   4
32 SANE, LANDING 5:15 2 1/1 0/1                       1
Team           1 2 3               3
Totals 200:00 72 17/41 7/29 17/25 13 29 42 16 14 16 1 5 24 19 65
        41.5% 24.1% 68%
Head coach: OBRADOVIC, SASA

Head Coaches

GOODES, GUY
Maccabi Rishon LeZion
"We are very happy. This is a very strong competition and there are a lot of very good teams. The first two games we were struggling, but we had 30 very good minutes against Bologna away and today we started the game very strong. We took the lead. But in the end, we were a little fatigued. We turned it over too much. But in the end, we got the victory and that’s what is important. We have a lot of players who are in European competition for the first time: some young players and some veterans who have never been on this stage. And I think the first two games were kind of to understand what we will face, meaning potential, aggressiveness, speed of the game. We played very well today. We started pretty good defensively and offensively. We were tired at the end but the victory was the number one thing for us."
OBRADOVIC, SASA
AS Monaco
"This is a big disappointment for me as a coach to get this attitude from my team. Actually, from the very beginning, we didn’t come to play and from a team with certain expectations this is unacceptable. We didn’t deserve to win. We need to analyze our mistakes. It’s the worst game that we played from the beginning of the season."

Players

HAMILTON, ALEX
Maccabi Rishon LeZion
"I’m not satisfied yet. It’s a long season. It’s just a win, but we’ll take it. Even though nobody believed in us, except the guys in the locker room, our front office and our fans, we just believed and stayed together and we were able to come out with this victory. I’m happy but not satisfied. We still have a long way to go. We still want to compete and win more games."
CLEMMONS, ANTHONY
AS Monaco
"They came out aggressive and they hit us first. As coach said, our identity is to come out here first and then continue for 40 minutes. That didn’t happen we tried to make a push towards the end, but by that time it was too late. We lost the game in the first quarter."