It was a morale-boosting outcome for Maccabi head coach Oded Kattash, who saw his team improve to 12-15 and keep alive its slim postseason hopes despite losing the battle of the boards 38-40 and committing 18 turnovers against just 14 assists, with Zvezda dishing out 10 assists more.
“I like the way we played,” said Kattash. “In the first half we controlled the rebounds, but in the second we knew they would come out aggressively and we were struggling. We managed to stay calm and it wasn’t pretty in the end, but we can see the mental improvement of the team as we kept losing games like this earlier this season. I am very proud of the team. This is a very special win for us.”
It was a setback for Zvezda head coach Sasa Obradovic as the Serbian side dropped to 16-11 following an impressive run of five successive wins as his men missed an opportunity to move a step further in the playoff picture, dropping two places down to seventh.
“We lost a bit of organization in the final quarter,” said the former international guard. “We’ve shown great character down the road but we can’t complain; we just have to be smarter in some situations.
“We failed to capitalize on good defense in the second half and we’re now carrying the weight of expectation as favorites after working our way up the ladder. The lads left their hearts out on the court but seemed to have lost their patience after a good run of results.”