Hapoel Jerusalem came up short at Venezia 83-80 as the Reds had been down by double digits for most of the game but closed the gap over the final frame, however, it was too little, too late. Yonatan Alon’s team finished in first place in Division A with a 13-5 record and will automatically advance to a one game quarterfinal clash mid-March against the winner of the Turk Telekom and Manresa matchup. Should Jerusalem have to play Turk, the game will most likely be played at a neutral site sue to the contentious relationship between Israel and Turkey since the start of the October 7, 2023 war with Hamas. Jared Harper scored 24 points in the loss while Kyle Wiltjer scored 22 points in the win.

“It feels good to finish with the best record in the tournament, it’s part of our journey,” Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon said “I’m not happy after a loss, but I am happy with the result of the regular season in the Eurocup. We all know that home court is a big question mark, I hope it will be in our favor. We need to raise the bar in the next stages, understand that this is a knockout and play our best basketball. Now all that matters is our game on Sunday in the State Cup semifinals against Maccabi Tel Aviv. We have a few goals in Israel that we need to focus on and now is the time for that.”

“We didn’t come sharp enough,” Reds captain Yovel Zoosman said. “We woke up too late and we should have played the whole game like we did in the last quarter. Let’s take the fact that we finished in first place and that we had no injuries in this game. We know what we can do and we can beat any team that goes up against us on any given day. We need to do the things we know how to do well enough. We have now qualified for the quarterfinals, it’s one game, hopefully it will be in Jerusalem. We will see what the teams in the Round of 16 will do and we will follow that and prepare properly. Now we are looking forward to the cup game against Maccabi.”

Hapoel Holon fell to Rytas Vilnius 106-98 as their record dropped to 0-4 in the Basketball Champions League Round of 16 Group Stage. In Predrag Krunic’s first game on the purples sidelines, Xavier Munford, Jordan McRae along with Adama Sanogo before he was ejected, all contributed in keeping the game close throughout the 40 minutes, but Jordan Walker, Ignas Sargiunas and Jerrick Harding proved to be too strong for the hosts who were playing in Bulgaria due to the security situation. Sanogo scored 25 points as Munford an McRae each scored 19 points in the loss while Walker and Sargiunas scored 27 points a piece and Harding put up 23 points in the victory.

“It was a tough and emotional game,” Krunic began. “My players showed aggression and solid team basketball. They fought well. We showed emotions. At certain moments there were only emotions, but I saw that the players can play together. We need to keep working, we want to win, we want to be better.”

The bench boss continued, “What I saw from them over the course of two days is that we can play good basketball if we work hard and stay together and if we direct our emotions the right way, we can be a good team. The players were focused and concentrated during our practice. They want to work and show that they can play good basketball and for me that was a good sign that they are ready for this game. We have enough days until next week, we have to improve our game.”