It didn’t take long for Hapoel Tel Aviv to get over their stunning Israel State Cup loss to Hapoel Jerusalem earlier in the week as the Reds demolished a visiting Paris Basketball squad 95-79 in a game that was never that close. After an even opening quarter, Jordan McRae, JP Tokoto and J’Covan Brown spurred Danny Franco’s team to a 35-18 second frame to take a commanding lead that they would never relinquish and cruise to the victory.

Brown paced the Reds with 17 points, 18 assists and 8 rebounds, McRae added 17 points, Tokoto put in 16 points in the win. Ismael Kamagate score 17 points and Tyrone Wallace added 15 points in the loss.

“We had to react after a tough domestic cup loss,” Franco said following the game. “I am happy everybody held themselves accountable for that last game and coming into this EuroCup game. It was important for us to try to stick to the top of the group as much as possible against a very good team on a good momentum. I am happy we came out first as aggressive as possible. That determined the game.”

“I am disappointed in the way we attacked the game,” Paris coach Will Weaver said. “They made it hard. Credit goes to Hapoel for imposing themselves on the game. But we certainly had a higher gear we can play in, and have been playing in. We were not in that gear tonight.”

Game MVP J’Covan Brown reflected on the game, ”We knew we had to come out and play a different style of basketball than we did last [domestic cup] game. That game we let the fans down, let ourselves down, and I knew it started with me. So I just had to do it from the tip, get everybody involved and just keep it rolling. And when we have a chance to get defense stops, we are a hell of a team to play against.”

J’Covan Brown ran the offense like a fine tuned orchestra early on as Tomer Ginat and Chinanu Onuaku and Bar Timor all took advantage of his assists for Hapoel Tel Aviv while Tyrone Wallace responded for Paris Basketball with points as the Reds led 12-10 midway through the first quarter. JP Tokoto got busy for the hosts but Amar Gegic and Aamir Simms countered for the visitors to knot the score up at 20-20 after 20 minutes of play.

Jordan McRae with a swish, Tokoto with a layup and Brown with a triple quickly bumped up the lead to 31-23 with six minutes left in the second quarter. McRae scored an acrobatic layup, Axel Toupane put in a 4-point play, Brown answered with a 3-pointer, McRae added a pair of baskets in the paint and a triple, Tokoto had his midrange game going while Xavier Munford scored two buckets in the last 3 seconds of the first half to give the Reds a 55-38 advantage.

Onuaku opened the third quarter with points, Munford took a Brown pass to the hoop, Jeremy Evans drilled home a 3-pointer for Will Weaver’s team while Brown did the same for Danny Franco’s squad as Hapoel stayed in front 64-45 midway through the period. Brown fed Timor for a back door layup and then did the same for a Jaylen Hoard alley-oop, Ismael Kamagate and Gauthier Denis scored for Paris, Onuaku came right back with points to give Hapoel a 77-61 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Adam Ariel dialled up long distance to get the fourth quarter underway, Brown went from deep, McRae hit a step back, Gegic and Denis responded for Paris but it was not enough as the Reds took the win.