Maccabi Tel Aviv blows out Partizan Belgrade

Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv stormed to exclusive control of first place in Group F with a blowout 88-67 home win against Partizan Belgrade on Thursday before a giddy sellout crowd of 11,000 at Nokia Arena. Maccabi is now 4-0 in Group F, a win ahead of both CSKA Moscow and Real Madrid, after its eighth consecutive victory overall and 12th in the last 13 games. From a 10-9 scoreboard late in the first quarter, Maccabi went on a 13-minute, 37-10 blast into halftime and never looked back on the way to beating Partizan. Alex Tyus came off the bench with 16 points on perfect 8-for-8 two-point shooting and 9 rebounds for Maccabi. Tyrese Rice, with 15 points, was the only other double-digit scorer for the winners, who got 8 points each from Devin Smith, Ricky Hickman, Yogev Ohayon, David Blu and Joe Ingles. Partizan got 17 points each from Tarence Kinsey and Bogdan Bogdanovic, plus 11 from Joffrey Lauvergne, but were out of the game early and saw their Top 16 record drop to 1-3.