2016-17Regular SeasonRound 25
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv 92
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 82
March 09, 2017 CET: 20:05
Local time: 21:05 MENORA MIVTACHIM ARENA

Maccabi FOX KO’s Milan

Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv kept its slim playoff hopes alive by crushing a depleted EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 92-82 on Thursday night at Menora Mivtachim Arena. Maccabi improved to 9-16 on the season and mathematically can still finish in the top eight if it keeps winning and results keep falling its way. On the other hand, Milan, which did not have head coach Jasmin Repesa on the sidelines due to sickness, and also missed its key backcourt players Mantas Kalnietis, Kruno Simon and Zoran Dragic due to injuries dropped to 7-18 and was officially eliminated from playoff contention. Maccabi pulled away in the second quarter, went into halftime up by 16 points and held a 58-35 advantage early in the third. Milan rallied to within 6 points in the third quarter, but never got closer than that as Diamon Simpson, Victor Rudd and D.J. Seeley made plays that allowed the hosts to finish comfortably. Rudd led the way with 17 points, Colton Iverson collected 16 points plus 9 rebounds, D.J. Seeley had 15 points and 7 assists, while Simpson debited with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks for Maccabi. Rakim Sanders paced Milan with 19 points. Awudu Abass scored 13, Milan Macvan had 12 points and 7 rebounds and Andrea Cinciarini finished with 10 points in defeat.

The teams traded blows early on, with Yogev Ohayon and Devin Smith hitting from the outside for Maccabi, while Miroslav Raduljica and Sanders battled for Milan. A triple from Abass gave Milan a 14-16 edge, but Rudd and Iverson quickly put Maccabi back in front, and back-to-back threes from Rudd and Sylven Landesberg helped Maccabi to a 26-20 after 10 minutes. Sanders opened the second quarter with a three-pointer, but Guy Pnini had a triple and Simpson added a three-point play to open a double-digit lead, 36-26. Abass hit another three for Milan, but Maccabi kept pulling away, sparked by a dunk from Iverson and a baseline jumper from Rudd, and 5 consecutive points from Gal Mekel that got Maccabi to 51-35 at halftime. Maccabi scored the first 7 points of the third quarter to open a 23-point lead, but Milan wasn’t going away. Sanders answered with back-to-back threes, before baskets from Jamel McLean, Macvan, Ricky Hickman and Cinciarini melted the deficit. Macvan’s triple cut it to 64-58. Mekel snapped a 6-23 run and Maccabi went into the fourth quarter up 70-61. That’s when Rudd and Simpson stepped up and Milan did not score a basket for more than three minutes to open the fourth quarter. A fastbreak dunk by Simpson and a three-point play from Rudd made it 83-65 midway through the fourth and Maccabi cruised the rest of the way.

Colton Iverson - Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv - EB16
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Euroleague.net
Referees: GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; ZAMOJSKI, JAKUB; PEERANDI, RAIN
Attendance: 11060
By Quarter1234
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv26251922
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan20152621
End of Quarter1234
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv26517092
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan20356182
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
3 RUDD, VICTOR 26:23 17 5/8 2/4 1/1 1   1   2 1     3 1 12
4 SEELEY, DENNIS 23:00 15 5/7 1/3 2/2 1 1 2 7 1       3 4 22
5 SIMPSON, DIAMON 20:00 11 5/9   1/3 3 5 8   1 1 3   3 4 17
6 SMITH, DEVIN 14:33 5 1/2 1/2     2 2 1     1   2   5
8 LEVI, NIMROD 1:30     0/1                       -1
9 MEKEL, GAL 27:36 7 2/3 0/1 3/4   3 3 8 1 3       4 17
10 PNINI, GUY 16:10 5 1/1 1/2   2   2 2             8
11 SEGEV, ITAY 2:13 2 1/2                         1
12 OHAYON, YOGEV 16:44 7 0/2 2/2 1/2   2 2 5 1 3     2 1 8
15 LANDESBERG, SYLVEN 24:36 7 2/5 1/5     2 2 1 1 1     2 2 3
23 ALEXANDER, JOE 9:03   0/1       1 1 1             1
24 IVERSON, COLTON 18:12 16 6/8   4/7 3 6 9   1       4 5 22
Team           1 3 4               4
Totals 200:00 92 28/48 8/20 12/19 11 25 36 25 8 9 4 0 19 21 119
        58.3% 40% 63.2%
Head coach: BAGATSKIS, AINARS
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
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
1 MCLEAN, JAMEL 27:18 8 3/5   2/4 1   1 8 1 2   1 3 3 11
2 FONTECCHIO, SIMONE 4:19           1 1           2   -1
7 HICKMAN, RICKY 29:54 8 3/7 0/3 2/2 2 5 7 7   1     2 5 17
11 RADULJICA, MIROSLAV 10:09 7 2/4   3/4   1 1           3 2 4
13 MACVAN, MILAN 31:24 12 2/7 2/4 2/2 3 4 7 1 1 2   1 3 2 10
14 PASCOLO, DAVIDE 11:09 2 1/3       1 1           1    
20 CINCIARINI, ANDREA 23:08 10 5/6 0/1     7 7 4   2     1 1 17
21 SANDERS, RAKIM 31:23 19 3/7 4/10 1/2 1 4 5 2 1 3   1 1 4 15
23 ABASS, AWUDU 28:27 13 0/4 3/4 4/4 3 1 4     2   1 3 2 8
30 CERELLA, BRUNO 2:49 3   1/1     1 1           2   2
Team           2 1 3               3
Totals 200:00 82 19/43 10/23 14/18 12 26 38 22 3 12 0 4 21 19 86
        44.2% 43.5% 77.8%
Head coach: REPESA, JASMIN

Head Coaches

BAGATSKIS, AINARS
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
"In preparing this game we said we did not want to rush anything. If we don’t have really good situation on offense, then we have to play longer positional offense, use it to find good shots and quickly get back on defense because Milan is really experienced and knows how to use situations of what opponents do. When we played like that, when we did not rush things, took extra time to find situation outside and inside in the paint, generally everything was okay. But when we started rushing, when we started hunting for points and playing too fast, Milan immediately used it in the third quarter. They were really close to getting all the way back into the game. We fixed the situation, kept control of the game, and we won. Diamon Simpson and Joe Alexander gave us extra rebounds and extra energy. We missed that for six months. They did a good job. "

Players

IVERSON, COLTON
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
"We came out focused. We put our energy in the right places and we came out with a victory. We had some guys step up, Simpson came out and played great for his first game. It is huge any time you get a presence in the lane. I thought Simpson played huge defense along with his offense in the lane. And honestly, that was the X-factor for the win tonight."
SIMPSON, DIAMON
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
"It feels good to win. Personally I was tired a couple of times and asked the coach to sub me, but then got my wind back. I was happy I could help in my first game and bring some energy."
MEKEL, GAL
Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv
"Diamon is the type of player I love playing with. He gave us a lot of energy. We had some days off, so we felt fresh and that helped."
HICKMAN, RICKY
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan
"We gave up too many easy baskets because the rotations were a little late. I'm not used to losing like that and surely we wanted to compete longer for the top eight, but tonight we were also short-handed. "