Hapoel Jerusalem came up short at Neptunas Klaipeda 98-92 as the reds lost their second straight game in EuroCup play while their record dropped to 12-4 but remain in first place in Group A. The Lithuanians grabbed a 33-25 lead after the first quarter, but the Reds were able to turn the tables to head into halftime holding a slim 1-point lead, 55-54.

The hosts were able to pull ahead in the 3rd quarter and built up a double digit lead in the final frame, but Jerusalem was able to cut the gap to just 2-points with under a minute to go, however, that’s as close as the reds would get as they came up short and fell by 6-points. Jared Harper scored 19 points, Khadeen Carrington added 16 points and Cassius Winston scored 15 points in the loss as Rihards Lomažs scored 31 points, Arnas Velička put in 16 points and Donatas Tarolis scored 15 points in the win.

Hapoel Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon said, “We let them play; we weren’t able to stop Neptūnas. They did the right things. We failed to be the dominant team, they had 17 more offensive possessions than we did, continuing what happened against Galil Elyon. Even in a close game, you can’t win like that; it’s a big gap. I won’t say my players don’t want it, that’s not true, but in the end you have to execute. Neptūnas had the upper hand. When you lose battles like that, you lose the game.”

Hapoel Holon fell to Le Mans 106-85 in Basketball Champions League Round of 16 as the purples record dropped to 0-2 in group stage action. The French squad took a 29-22 lead after the opening quarter but Holon stayed close as they headed into the final frame down by just 5-points but Le Mans pulled away with a 31-15 fourth quarter to take the 21-point win. Jordan McRae scored 17 points, Adama Sonogo added 15 points and Netanel Artzi put in 14 points in the loss while David DiLeo scored 26 points as both Tashawn Thomas and Johnny Berhanemeskel each scored 17 points in the win.

Yoav Shamir, head coach of Hapoel Holon, said after the game, “I think we competed for three quarters, but not in the way we wanted. In the fourth quarter we lost the battle in terms of focus and aggressiveness, in focusing on defending their key players and we turned the ball over too many times. But we need to learn from this. As the leader of the team, I need to do some soul-searching and understand how to create a better system to deal with situations like these.”