Avi Even: 'The terrorist attack in Tel Aviv overshadows our victory' / News - Basketnews.com

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Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv took a huge step towards the Euroleague playoffs with an imposing 85-73 victory over Panathinaikos OPAP in Athens. A night of 28 assists - the most by Maccabi in 18 years - meant Avi Even's team need only one more win to advance to the quarter-finals.

Player of the Game EFF 23 Derrick Williams Points 17 Accuracy 6-12 Rebounds 6 Assists 3

But the important victory was dwarfed by the arrival of news from Israel about the terrorist attack in Bnei Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv, in which four people were killed by a gunman.

"It's a very difficult night, after another terrorist attack in Israel, it overshadows our victory," coach Avi Even said.

"It's very difficult for me to talk about basketball now that I've heard the news. My heart and that of the whole club is with the victims' families," he added.

Referring to the game itself, the Israeli coach, who succeeded Giannis Sfairopoulos in mid-February, said:

"I'm very happy that we were able to translate the effort in defense into points on offense as well. We stopped them in the second half, allowing only 37 points, and that led to easy turnovers.

It was a tough game because they are a strong opponent, especially here. I'm very happy that we were able to get this win. We played good basketball for several minutes."

According to Jaylen Reynolds, who scored 16 points, the key to Maccabi's third straight win was defense.

"The way we stood side by side and executed the plays in the decisive moments," the American big man said.

"I think rebounds did the job for us tonight. It's a good feeling, we came and fought. We played against a good opponent, but we got the job done. We have to stick together and carry on like this," he concluded.

Derrick Williams, Maccabi's leading scorer in the game with 17 points, thinks that his team didn't start in the best way possible.

"But what matters is how you finish and not how you start," he went on to say.

"We played better as the game progressed. We made a few changes in rotations in the first half, made sure everyone was on the same line and focused. That's what the coaches were talking about, and that's how we finished the game," Williams added.

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