Hapoel Tel Aviv slipped by Anadolu EFES 71-66 in a hard fought battle that saw the Reds mount a second half comeback keyed by Chris Jones to take the victory. With the win, Dimitrios Itoudis’s team moves to 16-6, good for first place in the Euroleague standings as they will now prepare for their next matchup against Partizan Belgrade on Friday night in a game that will take place in Munich due to the Serbian’s arena being booked with another international competition.

PJ Dozier, Isaia Cordinier and Saben Lee helped EFES jump out to a 19-14 lead after the opening frame. Dozier and Lee kept filling the basket, Chris Jones responded but the visitors went into halftime up 43-33.

Elijah Bryant, Collin Malcolm and Ish Wainright all cut into the lead while Dan Oturu scored as well but points from Dozier and Lee kept Pablo Laso’s team in front 53-50 after thirty minutes of play. Jones, Malcolm and Wainright scored to give Dimitrios Itoudis’s team the lead, Ercan Osmani answered back but a clutch 3-pointer by Jones down the stretch closed out the victory for the Reds.

Jones scored 16 points, Wainright added 13 points and Bryant put in 12 points in the win while Lee scored 20 points, Dozier put in 15 points and Osmani scored 10 points in the loss.
“We don’t play alone and we have a huge respect for EFES,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis began. “EFES was missing a number of injured players and in their case less is more as they had a lot of guys who stepped up. But we were able to come back in the third quarter after they had led in the first half. This was another lesson for us and we are happy to get another win.”

The game MVP Chris Jones reflected on the win, “We believed in each other and I made a tough shot at the end, it went through and I am happy we won. The first half we were horrible defensively as a team and individually. We have to be better but we will learn from this and move forward. It was an ugly win but at the end we want to be at the top of the standings and in order for that to happen you need to win these types of game which shows we have a lot of character.”

Elijah Bryant also spoke about the win and looked ahead to the seine game in the double week, “We did a good job on defense and Chris Jones organized us and led us to help us get the win. We have to share the ball and trust each more and be able to run. Partizan Belgrade is a talented team but we will take it one day at a time.”