The French side bounced back after a road loss in Round 1
Nadir Hifi leads Paris past Maccabi for first win, 94-101



Paris Basketball picked up its first victory of the 2025–26 EuroLeague season by defeating Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv 94–101 on Friday night at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall in Belgrade, Serbia. Paris improved to 1–1, while Maccabi dropped to 0–2.
Nadir Hifi paced the visitors with 21 points and 5 steals in a standout performance. Justin Robinson added 15 points, while Yakuba Ouattara scored 12. For Maccabi, Lonnie Walker and Jeffrey Dowtin led the way with 16 points apiece. Jaylen Hoard contributed 15, TJ Leaf had 14, and Jimmy Clark chipped in 11.
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Maccabi started strong behind Dowtin’s three-pointer and Hoard’s back-to-back layups in a 9–2 run, capped by Leaf’s running hook. Joel Ayayi got Paris on the board with a fast-break layup before Derek Willis tied the game with a triple and a fast-break dunk. Leaf kept Maccabi’s offense rolling, but Hifi shifted the momentum with consecutive three-pointers to give Paris an 11–15 lead. Sebastian Herrera scored on a drive, and Robinson capped a 2–17 run with a tip-in off his own miss. Tamir Blatt responded with a triple, but Ouattara’s transition basket and Ismael Bako’s put-back dunk extended the lead to 14–23. Late baskets by Sorkin and Walker helped Maccabi close the gap to 19–25, before Robinson closed the first quarter with a layup for a 20–27 Paris lead.
Walker continued to pace Maccabi in the second quarter, but Robinson responded with a crafty inbound play, bouncing the ball off Marcio Santos’s back for an easy layup. Momo Faye added a put-back dunk to give Paris some breathing room at 25–31. Hoard and Clark trimmed the deficit to 29–32, but Jeremy Morgan and Alain Dokossi helped Paris pull away again. A dunk by Bako made it 32–42, and both teams traded three-pointers in a frantic final stretch of the half. Walker, Morgan, Santos, Dowtin, and Hifi all connected from deep, setting up a 41–48 Paris advantage at the break.
After halftime, Hoard opened the scoring with a backdoor layup, but Robinson answered with a three-pointer. Hifi followed with a fadeaway jumper off a slick Euro step, and Dokossi scored in transition for a 46–55 lead. Hoard and Walker continued to battle inside for Maccabi, but Hifi remained the key difference-maker, pushing Paris ahead 50–59. Hoard converted an alley-oop layup and Blatt kept Maccabi in touch, but a trademark corner triple from Ouattara and a fast-break layup from Robinson made it 57–67. Blatt, Santos, and Leaf helped close the gap again, but Paris finished the third quarter strong – Ayayi knocked down a triple and Hifi beat the buzzer with a deep three to restore a double-digit lead, 63–74.
Morgan opened the fourth with a coast-to-coast layup before Hifi hit another jumper to stretch the lead to 63–80. Paris stayed in control as Maccabi struggled to get stops – Ouattara buried another wide-open three and Morgan added a jump hook. Despite late threes from Hoard and Clark, Maccabi couldn't generate a run. Amath M'Baye and Herrera added insurance buckets before Leaf and Walker brought Maccabi within single digits, 81–90, with under 3 minutes to play. Ouattara calmly hit free throws and Dokossi’s put-back layup sealed the win at 83–94, before the final buzzer set the score at 94–101.