Maccabi Teddy Tel Aviv opened its games in the Barking Abbey Academy Euroleague Basketball Junior Classification Tournament with an 87-77 victory over BC Khimki Moscow in Group A on Thursday morning in London, England. Maccabi took a small lead in the first half, and never let go despite the Russian side kept challenging the margin. A small push in the closing minutes gave Maccabi a 1-0 record in the group and an important 10 point difference. Maccabi enjoyed a big start by combo guard Tomer Bar Aven with 25 points and 3 assists, Tamir Simchony added 15 while Michael Zalmanovic scored 13 with 5 rebounds. Maksim Chislov and Maxim Sakharov led Khimki with 13 points each, Alexander Zakharov and Yury Karpenko scored 12 each.

The first quarter showed both teams glued to each other, as Khimki used the fast pace to take a 17-18 lead after ten minutes. Simchony stepped up and attacked the basket to give Maccabi a small edge at the break, up by 6, 45-39, but Khimki was far from giving up. Bar Aven and Orel Lev caused havoc in Khimki's defense, but saw Chislov and Zakharov create on the other end and enter the closing quarter down 67-62. The pace of both sides resulted turnovers but also quick points, but whenever Khimki moved closer, Maccabi found the extra play to stay on top and with a good finish reached a safe 10 point win.