Hapoel Tel Aviv fell to Red Star Belgrade 87-75 as the Serbians mounted a huge fourth quarter comeback to erase a 69-62 lead after thirty minutes to take the victory. With the loss, the reds see their record drop to 16-9 but remain in third place, however, with Fenerbahce’s win over Barcelona Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad are now two games behind the top spot in the standings. Next up is a home clash against Valencia who came up short at Anadolu Efes and enter the matchup in 5th place with a 16-10 record.
Credit: Hapoel Tel Aviv
Codi Miller-McIntyre, Jared Butler along with Chima Moneke and Jordan Nwora all scored for Red Star while Ish Wainright, Colin Malcolm, Bar Timor and Dan Oturu countered for Hapoel Tel Aviv who were playing without star guard Elijah Bryant, but Sasa Obradovic’s squad took a 49-45 lead at halftime. Wainright, Chris Jones and Oturu continued to score at will over the course of the third quarter to give Hapoel a 69-62 lead but a red hot Nwora was unstoppable in the final frame to lead the hosts to the 12-point victory.
Jones scored 16 points, Wainright added 15 points and Malcolm scored 9 points in the loss while Nwora put in 22 points, Butler scored 17 points and Miller-McIntyre chipped in with 10 points in the win.
Credit: Hapoel Tel Aviv
“We fought very well for three quarters,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis said. “We managed to build up a good margin for that period. But we couldn’t respond at the end to the aggressiveness. It was too much of a load for our ball creators and we couldn’t respond to that. The pressure they had on our guards was enormous. We needed more people to contribute.”
“They are still one of the top teams for the Final Four,” Red Star Head Coach Sasa Obradovic’s began. “They showed for a good majority of the game how good they are. It was an amazing game, but like so many other games, we showed the best character in the last quarter. I think we did a great job, especially in the last quarter, dominating on defense. We deserved to win the game. We will take this win as an example for future games with full confidence.”
0 Comments