Bynum carries Maccabi on his shoulders to overtime win
By Steve Klein
Down 20 points deep into the third quarter and with only three points to his credit, Will Bynum decided there was only one thing to do - take matters into his own hands. The Maccabi Tel Aviv guard then proceeded to play nothing short of sensationally, running up a tally of 26 points in the final 13-plus minutes of regulation and five minutes of overtime to carry his club to an incredible 113-111 victory over Hapoel Jerusalem.
Erez Markovich was supposed to be the MVP of the game, scoring a season-high 23 points, many of them on put-backs from his 13 offensive rebounds. The team was scoring at will, including a 60-point first half, but Jerusalem suffered a catastrophic fourth quarter collapse. Jamie Arnold symbolized that meltdown, adding only four points to his first half tally of 20.
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While Hapoel seemed to be on its way to another upset of Maccabi, holding a double-digit lead at 88-77 with 3:14 in the final period, few could appreciate how much the team had exhausted itself to get to that point. Bynum, of course, sparked the final 21-10 charge. After Maccabi tied it up at 96 with 13.0 ticks left, Orien Greene went coast-to-coast to give Hapoel a brief lead with 7.5 seconds to go. However, Bynum - who else - inbounded the ball and took it right back for a clear drive to the basket to force overtime.
Even so, Hapoel fought hard in overtime. It took a brief 104-103 but still looked more shellshocked than anything. Bynum's final points - a three-pointer - gave Maccabi its biggest lead of the game, 111-105, with 1:25 to go. Then Hapoel made a unique three pointer, as Markovich made his first free throw after being fouled, and then Terrence Morris goaltended the missed second shot. Guy Pniny then tied it up on a three with 32.5 seconds left, but two Yotam Halperin free throws restored Maccabi's lead. Greene then tried another coast-to-coast basket, but this time Maccabi was ready and Morris blocked his attempt to preserve the victory.
Speaking on Israeli television, Bynum said, "I've been in a lot of crazy games, and this was one of them." He expressed his displeasure at Maccabi yielding 60 first-half points. "We were still like on a day off. We've gotta make the switch between Euroleague and the Israeli league. We're professionals."
The start of the game gave no indication of just how crazy the game would be. Neither team could establish dominance during the first quarter, which included six lead changes. Jerusalem didn't play very intense defense, but at the other end Maccabi failed to step up the pressure.
Hapoel's Markovich scored the first four points of the game, but Maccabi answered with a trey from Yotam Halperin and a basket by Vonteego Cummings to erase that early lead. When Hapoel took a 20-17 lead on a Timmy Bowers three-pointer, Halperin - who scored 14 in the first quarter - ran off six straight points, including two fast break layups. But Jerusalem had the last word of the quarter, with Arnold draining a three to beat the buzzer and give the visitors a 29-28 lead.
The first half of the second quarter, in contrast, was all Jerusalem, which broke out with a 23-7 run to take a commanding 52-35 lead. Maccabi's frustrations could be seen in Tal Burstein, who threw a ball at Guy Pniny after the latter had committed a reach-in foul, drawing a technical foul with 4:16 to go. Yet, that incident seemed to spark Maccabi. After Ramel Curry made his technical free throws to make it 54-38, Burstein blocked the next Hapoel shot and then fed Will Bynum for a three-pointer. Jerusalem coach Dan Shamir called a time-out to keep the momentum from swinging in Maccabi's way, but Tel Aviv's D was back in place. Jerusalem would not score another basket until Arnold swished a trifecta for his 20th point of the half to break an 8-1 Maccabi run. Burstein's buzzer-beating three brought Maccabi within 11 at 60-49.
Maccabi's inconsistency on defense, which assistant coach Guy Goodes described as "unacceptable" to the Sports cable channel at half time, led to the 20-point deficit. Bynum's determination dug it out this time, but it may not always be this lucky unless it makes that switch he was talking about.
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