Hapoel Jerusalem celebrated the return of continental competition to the Arena in the capital city with a 105-69 demolition of Manresa in EuroCup action. After a tight first half that saw the Spaniards in front 49-45, Cassius Winston and Yovel Zoosman filled the basket to cruise to the 36-point victory. Winston scored 20 points, Khadeen Carrington and Justin Smith added 15 points while Jared Harper and Zoosman put in 14 points in the win while Pierre Oriola scored 14 points and Alex Reyes scored 13 points in the loss.

Reds Head Coach Yonatan Alon shared his thoughts after the game, “We had a great second half. We did the same things that we did in the first half but much better, now we need to keep on winning our upcoming games.”

Alon also added a note regarding the EuroCup games returning to Israel, “It’s a great thing and a lot of different teams and people were involved. The fact the EuroCup games are back brought so much joy to our fans and to all of the country.”

Manresa head coach Diego Ocampo shared his thoughts after the game as well, “Our 3-point shots helped us in the first half, but we were unable to make that happen in the second half as well and Jerusalem knew to take advantage of the aspects we did not know to do as well in the last 20 minutes of the contest. We were only competitive during the first 20 minutes.”

The reds were happy with their win and shared their perspective about the victory after the game. Cassius Winston emphasized the team effort and the special atmosphere at the Arena, “It felt great, the energy was there, the crowd for sure helped, we have a really good team.”

Captain of the reds, Yovel Zoosman also discussed the important win for his team, “The crowd were really into the game and had a very positive tempo that helped us make our shots and helped us get stops. When I roared in delight after my 3-pointer near the end of the game was a moment you dream about.”

Center Justin Smith elaborated on the team effort and the crowd atmosphere, “We as a team really fed off the energy of the fans. We have a lot of guys who can contribute on any given night.”

Jared Harper also mentioned how much of an impact the fans had on the game, “Tje fans were great and they pushed us the entire game. This is my first time playing a European game for us at the arena, it was great. We have a good team and we stuck to our game plan.”

Another Jerusalem big man Austin Wiley, discussed the shift the team had in the second half, “The coach told us to do things simple and efficiently as well as to put a focus on defense and that’s what we did.”

Next up for Hapoel Jerusalem is the other Israeli team who played European basketball in Israel Tuesday night- Hapoel Tel Aviv. Expect a thriller on Saturday night!