Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Anadolu EFES 87-81 to move to 2-0 early on in the Euroleague season. After a rough first half that saw the Reds go into halftime down 46-35, Dimitrios Itoudis’s charges held the hosts to just 13 points as Dan Oturu and Vasilije Micic handled the scoring in the 3rd frame and then went on an 11-0 run sparked by Antonio Blakeney in the 4th quarter to close out the victory.

Blakeney scored 17 points, Elijah Bryant added 15 points while Micic scored 9 points, grabbed 5 boards and dashed out 6 assists for the Reds. Jordan Loyd scored 25 points and Ercan Asmani scored 16 points in the loss.

“We saw two very different halves,” Hapoel head coach Dimitris Itoudis said. “In the first half, we played like prima donnas. Defensively, we weren’t on the court; offensively, our attitude was wrong and our spacing was poorly organized, Efes had us figured out. We were just reacting and falling behind. But everything changed in the third and fourth quarters. We set the tone with a different mindset on defense and committed ourselves to playing aggressive basketball on both ends. That made all the difference.”

Ish Wainright reflected on the game, “Defense is my thing, and in the first half I wasn’t locked in. I needed to be focused in every aspect of the game. The second half was different, we came out and punched back.”

Dan Oturu added, “In the second half, we were more aggressive in everything, offense and defense. In the first half, we let them take us out of our sets and played timidly. But after halftime, we stepped up, attacked more on defense, and played with confidence.”