Real Madrid slammed Hapoel Tel Aviv 102-75 as Facundo Campazzo and Usman Garuba in place of the injured star center Edy Tavares, ran the reds ragged in the second half to take the game two win to take a stranglehold 2-0 lead in their Euroleague quarterfinal series. Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad came out with a ton of energy early on thanks to impressive play on the inside by Dan Oturu as Hapoel grabbed a 42-40 advantage at halftime.

However, the second half was all one way traffic as Campazzo, Garuba along with Mario Hezonja and Theo Maledon started to score at will and lock down on defense to close out the 27-point win. Next up for the two clubs will be game three on Tuesday and if necessary game four on Thursday in Bulgaria as the Reds will have their backs against the wall and will need to sweep the pair of home away from home games and then return to Madrid for a decisive game five the following week.
Oturu scored 19 points, Elijah Bryant added 11 points and Chris Jones scored 10 points in the loss while Campazzo scored 23 points as Garuba and Maledon each scored 13 points in the win.
Real Madrid Head Coach Sergio Scariolo spoke about what helped his team take the win, “We needed to play with more consistency and we did that as we played well on both ends of the floor. We decided with Edy Tavares out we would give Usman Garuba the opportunity and space as he was able to do some very good things for us. We need him to be 100% in this tough moment without our cornerstone center.”

Hapoel Head Coach Dimitros Itoudis summed up his team’s performance, “We saw two different teams. In the first half we were competitive, we followed the game plan and knew how to cope even when they were leading. Unfortunately, we lost our composure, there was pressure on the playmakers, we collapsed in the third quarter and Real Madrid’s second unit scored 16 points. They deserved to win. We’ve shown on many occasions that we can compete. We’re here to compete, and we need to extend those 20 minutes into 40 minutes. We need to win, we don’t want to get swept.”

On what caused the change in the second half the bench boss explained, “They put a lot of pressure on us, took away passing lanes, created many good looks and knew how to take advantage of our inconsistency in executing the game plan. They are good players, very experienced and they used that along with their size advantage.”
Facundo Campazzo talked about the victory, “We didn’t finish nothing yet, so we’re not allowed to be happy. We have to enjoy the victory, enjoy that we are 2-0, but there’s a lot of work to do so we’ve got to put our energy over there.”

Dan Oturu also spoke after the game, “We didn’t play well enough, that’s what happened. The difference between the halves? Two completely different teams and that’s unacceptable. I don’t know what happened in the third quarter—we just didn’t play the way we were supposed to. I always believe we can win. Tomorrow is a new day. We’ll focus on practice and hopefully come out with the right energy. It’s only 2–0 and we’re still in it.”