Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated ASVEL Villeurbanne 81-73 as the reds mounted a second half comeback to secure the win in France and remain atop the standings with a 15-6 record. The hosts jumped out to a 38-31 lead at halftime and increased their advantage to 45-33 early on in the third quarter, but Elijah Bryant and Dan Oturu turned up the gears in the second half to help the visitors to the victory.

Oturu scored 18 points, Bryant added 17 points and Chris Jones scored 12 points for Hapoel while Glynn Watson scored 17 points and Shaquille Harrison scored 14 points in the loss for ASVEL.

“Congratulations to my team,” Hapoel head coach Dimitrios Itoudis began. “We had to change things drastically at halftime as we wanted to be precise on what we were doing offensively. We never lost faith in what we were doing as a team even though we were down by 12. The team reacted and I appreciate that.”

“They were better than us and showed more talent in the end,” ASVEL Head Coach Pierric Poupet said. “It’s killing us to lose like this but overall we showed a lot of good things, so heads up and keep working for the next game coming up.”

The game MVP Elijah Bryant added, “We got stops in the second half against a very talented ASVEL team. Our defense set the tone and we now have to focus on getting better every single day.”

Dan Oturu also spoke about the win, “Both the first time against Villeurbanne and this time, even though the standings show that the opponent isn’t strong and is near the bottom, they play tough and they know how to play, with a good coach and they made things difficult for us. You have to respect every opponent, stick to the game plan, and that’s what we did. In the end, we managed to win, and that’s the goal.”