Maccabi Teddy Tel Aviv remained perfect following an 80-58 win over Barking Academy at the end of Day 1 in the Barking Abbey Academy Euroleague Basketball Junior Classification Tournament on a Thursday evening game in London, England. Maccabi climb to a 2-0 record in Group A while Barking dropped to 1-1 before the last games of the group will decide its fate tomorrow. The winner of the tournament will qualify to the Nike International Junior Tournament to be played during the 2010 Euroleague Final Four weekend in Paris, France. Maccabi was on top of the game from the first minute but made a big run in the third quarter to establish a 20 point lead all the way to the final buzzer. Maccabi saw 25 points by Orel Lev, followed by Axel Van-Ouwerkerk with 16 and Tamir Simchony with 14 points. Josh Johnson was the best scorer of Barking with 15 points while Jesse Chuku finished with 12.

Maccabi stormed the court and grabbed a 9-1 lead after 3 minutes. Barking called a time out and soon saw its first field goal, but Maccabi remained in control. Van-Ouwerkerk and Michael Zalmanovic set the score on 22-12 deep in the first quarter, but Johnson got in the groove and with a three pointer cut the margin to 24-19 after 12 minutes. Van-Ouwerkerk connected two baskets to push the gap back to 9, but Barking was still fighting back. Johnson reached 15 points to make it just a 34-31 game deep in the second, but Lev and Tomer Bar Even combined points to push it back to 7 and the later added a big block to stop a fast break. Yet the last word of the half was said by Okereafor who hit a shot from the arc and set the first half score on 40-36. Maccabi returned much more focused to the second half and showed its aggressiveness on offense and defense. Bar Even, Van-Ouwerkerk and Lev were the spread heads of an 18-5 run led by fast break points and second chances, that left Barking behind by 17 points, 58-41 after 25 minutes. Maccabi kept the pressure on and didn't allow the hosts a chance to get closer, and risk the win, while both sides saved their 4th quarter energy for tomorrow's tough day.