Five of the visiting team's players scored in double digits
Partizan leaned on team effort to down Maccabi
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Regular Season
Round 4 of 34
Regular Season
Maccabi Playtika Tel AvivMTA
7991
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
Overview
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Not one, not two but five Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade players hit double digits in scoring to end the double-round week in style by leading the Serbian side to a 79-91 victory at Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in Round 4 of the 2024-25 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague season. Coaches insist that solid defense provides players with the necessary confidence to thrive on the other end, and that’s precisely what happened to Partizan at Aleksandar Nikolic Hall.
The two teams exchanged as many as 23 leads in the first three quarters, but Partizan’s team effort on both ends clinched them the victory in the fourth, with the visitors outscoring Maccabi 15-25 in an almost perfect quarter.
Sterling Brown netted 12 of those 25 points, ending the contest with a game-high 20 points. Isaac Bonga did a great job opening the floor, going 4 for 5 from beyond the arc en route to 14 points. Meanwhile, Frank Ntilikina pulled off an extremely mature performance, making 5-of-6 field goals to finish the game on 12 points. As for the other two players who recorded double digits in scoring, Iffe Lundberg and Carlik Jones netted 11 points each and recorded 5 and 6 assists, respectively.
“That was a great team win,” Brown told EuroLeague TV after the game. “Both ends of the floor, we came out in the second half and got it done. The coach got on us at halftime and we came out and we responded, especially on the defensive end.”
Partizan head coach Zeljko Obradovic had every reason not to be happy with his team’s defense in the first 20 minutes. The guests gave up 46 points and allowed Maccabi to grab as many as 14 offensive rebounds – more than the Partizan’s 13 total rebounds in the first half.
Yet, his team stepped up its defense after the break, producing 3 blocks and 3 steals in the last quarter to seal the victory. Maccabi struggled to get open looks, with its opponents’ deflections and stops allowing the visitors to build their confidence.
“It was a EuroLeague game,” Obradovic said in his post-game interview for EuroLeague TV. “Very tough, very close game, everything being decided in the last minutes.”
This was Partizan’s third EuroLeague game in a row where five or more players scored at least 10 points each, showing the team’s diverse options on offense. The Serbian side is set to host Virtus Segafredo Bologna next week, when team effort on both ends could once again be the key to a potential third straight victory.