Hapoel Tel Aviv cruised to a 100-73 win over Cedevita Olimpija as their EuroCup campaign started off on the right foot. The Reds controlled the game right from the get go with points from Xavier Munford and J’Covan Brown as they built up a double digit lead midway through the first quarter and never looked back as five players including Jaylen Hoard, Tomer Ginat and Braian Angola all finished in double digits.

Next up for Danny Franco’s team is the Israel league opener against Hapoel Galil Elyon on Sunday (19:40) and will welcome in Wolves from Lithuania next Wednesday evening back at the Drive In and will also host Venezia the following week as they begin with three continental clashes at home.

Munford led the way with 21 points, Ginat and Hoard each finished with 18 points and 8 rebounds a piece while Brown dropped 15 points and dished out 8 assists in the win. Justin Cobbs scored 15 points and Jake Blazic added 13 points in the loss.

“Super pleased form the result today,” Franco said. “First game, home, season opener after a messed up preseason and we didn’t have enough time to connect the new guys to the others, but I’m happy that the guys stepped up. We found out right before the game that Kyle Alexander was sick and he had gotten worse from how he was in the morning and it wasn’t the news we wanted to get. We are coming together as a team and playing for each other. I’m happy that the guys did the job.”

“I’m happy to be here in Israel and see a lot of familiar faces,” Olimpija coach Simone Pianigiani said. “Congratulations to Hapoel and they did what I expected from the beginning of the game, we tried to resist and stop turnovers at the start and we committed 10 or 11 of them and that was the game.”

Xavier Munford also spoke about the victory, “We found out before the game that Kyle would be out and we knew that John Holland was out as well. We raised our level and we got a great effort. The fans were great and they pushed us.”

Braian Angola looked back at the game as well, “This was a great great win and we haven’t had the chance to play many games yet together so we wanted to come into the game and do what we did in practice, play hard.”

Xavier Munford led the Hapoel Tel Aviv attack from the outset with a deuce followed up by a pair of triples, J’Covan Brown scored at will while Tomer Ginat also found points to open up a double digit lead 21-11. Jaka Blazic, Sean Armand and Justin Cobbs tried to keep Cedevita Olimpija close but Jaylen Hoard scored a pair of buckets to give the Reds a 28-21 lead after ten minutes of action.

Braian Angola, Ginat and Bar Timor began the second quarter with baskets, Cobbs and Karlo Matkovic responded but Brown with a pair of buckets and an Idan Zalmanson deuce gave Danny Franco’s team a 48-36 advantage at halftime.

Matkovic started to narrow the gap with a couple of baskets, but Angola with a triple, Ginat with a pair of buckets, Hoard with an alley-oop and Munford with a 3-point play gave Hapoel a 71-55 lead after thirty minutes of action. Ginat opened up the fourth quarter with a deuce, Hoard put down a massive tomahawk dunk while Munford hit back to back triples to polish off a 27-point victory.