Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Partizan Belgrade 97-84 in what was a tough game form the tipoff, however, the Reds with fine play from Collin Malcolm along with clutch shooting by Ish Wainright gave Hapoel the lead they needed to break away and record the win.

Elijah Bryant put his mark on the game early on, Sterling Brown, Duane Washington and Tyrique Jones answered back but points from Antonio Blakeney and Dan Oturu gave the Reds a 43-42 lead at halftime. Collin Malcolm scored, Ish Wainright drained a trio of triples and Chris Jones hit a pair from deep to close out the victory.

Malcolm scored 17 points, Oturu added 14 points and Blakeney put in 13 points for Hapoel while Brown scored 19 points, Washington scored 15 points and Jones chipped in with 14 points for Partizan.

“54 points and 7/14 from 3’s and more assists,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis began. “We had better spacing and better defense and we are still a new team and we are getting to know each other, but we all have to sacrifice. The congratulations goes to the players and we are learning from this process. We are happy we can bring the win eventhough we didn’t play our best.”

Dan Oturu spoke about the game, “We played good defense in teh second half and Partizan is a good team with a lot of fans. We knew we had to match their intensity and that is what helped us in the second half. At this stage of the season the standings don’t really matter. Olympiacos is a good team and well coach, it will be tough to play in Piraeus and we have to match the intensity that will be in the arena.”

Elijah Bryant, Collin Malcolm and Vasilije Micic all scored for Hapoel Tel Aviv while Dylan Osetkowski responded for Partizan Belgrade, but an Antonio Blakeney 3-pointer gave the reds 25-19 lead after ten minutes of play. Duane Washington, Sterling Brown and Tyrique Jones all dialed up from long range while Blakeney did the same from deep twice and Dan Oturu scored a pair from inside to keep Hapoel ahead 43-42 at halftime.

Malcolm went from the outside and Oturu scored on the inside for Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad while Ish Wainright drained a trio of triples to give Hapoel a 70-63 lead after thirty minutes of action. Malcolm drilled home a 3-pointer while Chris Jones nailed two from deep, Brown and Jones tried in desperation to keep Partizan in the game, but it wasn’t enough as the reds took the win.