Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv has not lost since the national team break
Maccabi remains hot, downs Virtus for 4th straight win

Don’t look now but Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv has the longest active winning streak in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague after beating Virtus Segafredo Bologna 77-67 for its fourth straight victory. With Crvena Zvezda Meridianbet Belgrade snapping table-topper Olympiacos Piraeus’ six-game roll, Maccabi is now the hottest team though the Israeli champion has already been eliminated from postseason contention with a 10-20 record.
Despite missing Levi Randolph, Jaylen Hoard and Jasiel Rivero, Maccabi took control of the game with a 32-8 run spanning the middle two quarters. Rokas Jokubaitis led the way with 19 points, Jimmy Clark scored 14 points, Roman Sorkin had 12 and Trevion Williams finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Virtus continued its freefall with an eighth straight loss for a 7-23 record. Achille Polonara was Virtus’s leading scorer with 15 points, Will Clyburn scored 13 points with 8 rebounds and 5 steals in his return and Ante Zizic added 11 points and 12 rebounds.
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Virtus head coach Dusko Ivanovic had a welcome return to his starting line-up as Clyburn was playing his first game since Round 19 at the start of January. Maccabi had its troubles offensively to start the game, hitting just 1 of 5 shots and committing 2 turnovers in the first 4 minutes as Virtus jumped ahead to a 2-12 lead with Zizic scoring twice. Maccabi picked up its defense and got back into the game with Jokubaitis and John DiBartolomeo making triples in an 11-2 run over 4 minutes to get within 13-14. Still, Virtus was up 15-17 after 10 minutes.
Two Matt Morgan scores extended the Virtus cushion to 17-25 early in the second frame. Maccabi once again mounted a comeback and this time with 3 triples and Jokubaitis scoring 7 points in a 19-6 run to move ahead 36-31. And the hosts went into the break ahead 42-33.
Maccabi scored the first 7 points of the second half as the advantage grew to 49-33. Virtus needed more than 3 minutes to finally score and temporarily cut the gap to 10 points at 51-41. But Maccabi put the game out of reach with an 11-0 run for a 65-43 advantage, which was 65-45 after 30 minutes.
Maccabi remained in control and pushed the lead to 71-47 with less than 7 minutes to play. Virtus was not ready to give up the game and put together multiple stops for a 2-14 run to make it 73-61 with just more than 2 minutes left. A Jokubaitis jumper and Clark reverse layup finished off the game.