EUROLEAGUE - Blatt, Efes Pilsen fall at Maccabi Tel Aviv

Standings

TEL AVIV (Euroleague) - David Blatt has been on a high ever since leading Russia to the gold medal in September's EuroBasket and into the Beijing Olympics but he'll be feeling a little lower on Friday morning as coach of Efes Pilsen following their 73-67 defeat at shorthanded Maccabi Tel Aviv.

With center Nikola Vujcic, one of the top players in the competition in recent seasons, injured and out of action for at least a month, Maccabi are facing a very difficult stretch of games as they try to remain in contention for a place in the Top 16 but Oded Katash engineered a famous triumph in front of the home fans.

Though Vujcic has gone down, the club has signed a classy center in Uruguayan international Esteban Batista, who elected at the end of the NBA pre-season not to remain with the Boston Celtics where he would have played very little.

Batista is 2.08m tall and he showed his quality this summer at the FIBA Americas Championship by averaging almost 21 points and more than 12 rebounds per game for Uruguay.

He was definitely the game-winner for Maccabi, who had trailed 55-46 in the third quarter but went on an 11-0 run which bridged that period and the fourth. In that surge, Batista scored six of his team-high 14 points and the home side ultimately prevailed.

A key in the victory was the battle of the boards with Maccabi, another team Blatt once coached, claiming 43 to just 34 for the visitors from Istanbul.

"At the end of the pre-game talk I told the players not to care about the score, but to try to win the rebounds battle," said Katash, a former player at Maccabi who is in his first year in charge.

"We outrebounded them 43-34 and that says it all. We proved we can play better defense and be more aggressive. That is what wins games."

Katash also gushed about the contribution of his new big man, Batista.

"Batista took the chance and showed he can help us," Katash said. "He will be better than this once he adjusts to the European game."

Andre Hutson of Efes was the game-high scorer with 21 points.

Tau Ceramica beat Prokom Trefl 82-66 in Poland to take their record to 2-1, while Prokom slipped to 0-3 after a second home loss.

Argentina international Pablo Prigioni and Serbia's Igor Rakocevic top-scored for Tau with 15 points each, while Thomas Van den Spiegel contributed 17 points and 14 rebounds in Prokom's losing cause.

Barcelona beat Chorale Roanne 82-76 in Group C.

Croatia national team center Mario Kasun led the scoring for Barcelona with 22 points and Slovenia guard Jaka Lakovic added 16.

Marc Salyers was Chorale's top scorer with 21 points and he also grabbed nine rebounds.

Unicaja won 74-65 against Armani Jeans Milano, thanks largely to a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter.

Milano were 55-53 ahead early in the final period before Unicaja struck to take their record to 2-1 and leave the Italians without a win.

Daniel Santiago, Spanish international Carlos Cabezas and German Gabriel all reached double figures for the visitors, while Italy teenager Danilo Gallinari, who led the scoring with 18 points, was unlucky to be on the losing side.

Elsewhere, Olympiacos thrashed Virtus Bologna 104-76 in Group A thanks to 24 points each from Marc Jackson and Lithuania guard Arvydas Macijauskas, who continues to show signs of returning to top form after missing most of last season through injury.

Qyntel Woods added 23 for Olympiacos.

FIBA