Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem are back in EuroCup action as both teams will look to improve on their records Thursday night as Dimitrios Itoudis’s team will visit Gran Canaria (22:00 Israel time) and Yonatan Alon’s squad will “host” Aris in Samokov (20:00).
The 4th place 7-5 Division A Tel Aviv Reds will face a tricky ACB opponent who are sitting in 2nd place at 9-2 as they will need to pick up a win if they want to solidify their position in the standings.
Dimitrios Itoudis – Photo credit: Hapoel Tel Aviv
“We are playing against a very strong team,” Itoudis said. “They have built a solid base of players and a professional team in recent years. This is a team that won the EuroCup in the 2022/23 season. Gran Canaria has a lot of experience. It also recorded an impressive victory over Valencia at home in the league.”
The Greek bench boss added, “They are able to field diverse formations with different sizes, especially when Nicolas Brussino plays in the ‘3’ position, they have many combinations to also play small ball at a high pace. We are practicing well and are looking forward to the game because it is an opportunity to test ourselves against a high-quality and intelligent opponent at the highest level.”
Tomer Ginat and Jonathan Motley – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman
Veteran forward Tomer Ginat also looked ahead to the upcoming contest, “The game against Gran Canaria is a big challenge for us, this is one of the strongest home teams. We are all aware of the importance of the game, we will arrive focused and aggressive and will do everything to meet the task.”
As for the Capital City Reds who are in 2nd place with a 7-5 record in Division B, they will be playing what many would consider one of the weaker teams in the competition. However, they are also aware that they can’t underestimate any team in their group as the 3rd to 7th place teams are either sitting at 7-5 or 6-6 in the standings, making this game one that is critical for Yonatan Alon’s squad who will have Justin Smith back in the lineup.
Yonatan Alon – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman
“We need to sharpen up the areas which need to be worked on. We need to bring energy as Aris are a very aggressive and tough team. As for Justin Smith, he is a great player and I hope we see another good game from him, like he had in the Israeli league earlier in the week when he returned from injury.”
Guard Khadeen Carrington added, “We need to play like when we had our long winning streak. We have been a little off the mark since the streak and there are no excuses for that, but we know that this is money time and it is a game that we have to win and play hard.”
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