Hapoel Jerusalem’s continental campaign came to an end as they fell to Gran Canaria 92-89 in their EuroCup quarterfinal matchup. In a game that was played in Belgrade due to the continuing security situation in Israel, Caleb Homesley came up huge down the stretch to close out the contest as he not only hit his only triple of the game but also found points on the line and in the paint to help his side notch the win.

Yovel Zoosman, Khadeen Carrington and Jared Harper scored early on but Joe Thomasson and Caleb Homesley kept the visitors hanging around as the Reds grabbed a 44-42 advantage at halftime. Homesley and John Shurna found the basket early on in the second half as Carrington countered for Yonatan Alon’s side but Mike Tobey and Nicolas Brussino helped Jaka Lakovic’s team take a 10-point, 68-58 lead after thirty minutes of action. Harper, Carrington, Jeremy Morgan and Justin Smith cut the lead down to 81-79 with just minutes remaining in the game but Homesley triple and free throws as the game wound down gave the ACB squad the win.

Harper scored 24 points, Carrington added 20 points and Zoosman scored 13 points in the loss. Homesley scored 21 points, Thomasson put in 15 points and Tobey scored 14 points in the win.

“Defensively we made too many mistakes,” Hapoel Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon began. “If you want to get to the higher stages you have to play without making mistakes and that cost us the game. In games like this, every possession is important and you can how well Grab Canaria plays together and how coordinated they are. You can analyze this game but at the end of the day it was a 3-point game. Every parameter is important and maybe we could have taken this game but we had too many mistakes on defense and it cost us.”

The coach added: “We had an amazing European season. I don’t know many teams that would have performed the way we did without 5 key players who were injured, not to mention the fact that our home court has not been our home. We didn’t whine, we fought, it’s never fun to lose, but I don’t like to use clichés that we are proud of our campaign. We didn’t win, we didn’t do the job and I have zero criticism for the players.”

“We broke the game open at the end of the third and start of the fourth quarter,” Gran Canaria head coach Jaka Lakovic said. “After Hapoel Jerusalem fought to come back into the game, we were very concentrated and focussed enough as we hit some huge 3-pointers plus we hit our free throws which decided the game. We are happy to advance to the next stage where we will play Basaksehir in the semifinals.”

The game MVP Caleb Homesley spoke about the victory, “I’m excited and we really wanted this win. We put it all on the line as we knew it wasn’t going to be easy but we were able to execute our game plan. At halftime we came together and talked about where we needed to make adjustments and we did just that to come away with the win.”

Jerusalem star Jared Harper added, “This was a tough loss and we had a hard time getting back into the game. We lost on the little details, rebounds, layups. We had to be better on the little details. It was a good test for us, even though it wasn’t the result we wanted. They did a good job with the ball, there were parts of the game we did a good job, but this was the worst defensive game we’ve had in a long time. It’s tough when it happens at this point but we’ll have to fix it.”