By Charlie O. Mallonee

Before we give you the score of the Maccabi Haifa – Sacramento Kings game, let us give you a little -background on the team from Haifa, Israel.

Maccabi Haifa Basketball Club plays in the Israeli Super League. The team won the Super League Championship in 2012-13. Maccabi Haifa was the runner-up in last year’s Super League Championship.

Maccabi Haifa is owned by an American, Jeff Rosen. Under Rosen’s direction, the team has risen from the lower divisions and returned to prominence in the Super League Division. Maccabi has its own feeder team, the Miami Midnites, which plays in the ABA Summer League in the United States.

Maccabi Haifa has been playing NBA teams during the preseason since 2010. They have never won a contest versus a NBA opponent.

Maccabi Haifa is still looking for their first win versus a NBA team as they lost to the Sacramento Kings 91-59 on Saturday night. The Kings won every quarter in the contest.

Kings head coach Michael Malone has to be happy with the way his team played defense. The Kings held Maccabi Haifa to just .278 (22-79) shooting from the field. The most points the Kings allowed was 17 in the third quarter.

The Kings shot .450 (27-60) from the field. They shot .364 (4-11) from 3-point range.

DeMarcus Cousins led the Kings in scoring with 15 points in 26 minutes of play. Derrick Williams and Darren Collison each added 12 points apiece. Ramon Sessions scored 11 points while Nik Stauskas hit for 10 points.

Rudy Gay did not play due to an ankle injury that occurred in a team practice.

The Kings next preseason game will be on October 20^th in San Antonio versus the Spurs.

News from the Reno Bighorns

The Reno Bighorns, the Kings D-League affiliate, have named a new head coach. David Arseneault Jr. will be the head coach for the 2014-15 season.

Arseneault, who is just 28 years old, has been the associate head coach for Grinnell College for the last four seasons. His father is the head coach at Grinnell. Grinnell is a NCAA Division III school.

The Bighorns have also named Ben McDonald assistant coach. He was an assistant with the Erie Bayhawks last year. The team has promoted Scott Schroeder from assistant coach/video coordinator to Director of Basketball Operations.