Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Besiktas 109-101 in overtime as Antonio Blakeney continued his fine form and helped lead the reds to the tough win in Bulgaria. With the win, Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad moved to 7-5 on the season and moved into 4th place just above Besiktas who now have the same record and behind Ulm who are 8-4 in a Division A.

Jonathan Motley and Antonio Blakeney paced Hapoel Tel Aviv while Jonah Mathews and Kyle Allman scored for Besiktas as the Reds took a 49-39 lead at halftime. Emanuel Terry and Allman started to cut into the lead but Tomer Ginat and Blakeney kept Hapoel ahead 71-69 after thirty minute of action.

Yam Madar took the bull by the horns and started scoring in bunches, Blakeney hit a trio of triples to take a double digit lead but Allman, Yigit Arslan and Dustin Sleva with free throws knotted the game up at 93-93 to send it to overtime. Blakeney got busy in the extra session as did Marcus Foster to close out the victory.

Blakeney scored 27 points going 5/6 from beyond the arc, Motley added 21 points and Madar scored 16 points in the win. Allman score 26 points, Mathews added 16 points and Sleva put in 14 points in the loss.

“The why [we gave up a big lead late in regulation time] we will find it and analyze it, it frustrates me,” Itoudis said after the game. “We made stupid mistakes, Besiktas forced turnovers and we could have done it easier. But this was like a double win for us as we beat Bseskitas twice in this very competitive league. Overall, we have to learn from the small details down the stretch, it looked like we were scared to win in regulation time and we brought the game there.”

The game MVP Antonio Blakeney spoke about the win, “We wanted win the game and it was close but we just wanted to win the game. I feel good about the team and we have time to get better and we have to keep getting better which I feel that we did from the last EuroCup game and that’s the key just get better every single day.”

Hapoel Holon came up short at Nanterre 87-77 as the purples finished the Basketball Champions League group stage in 3rd place and will play Turkish squad Aliaga Petkimspor in the best of three Play In.

Justin Tillman, Ahmad Caver and Benjamin Sene all scored for Nanterre but Yotam Hanochi and Brendan Adams kept Hapoel Holon close but down 40-37 at halftime. Dakarai Tucker and Netanel Artzi scored for the purples but Desi Rodriguez and Paul Lacombe helped bump up the host’s lead but Elijah Mitrou-Long cut down the advantage, however, Justin Tillman scored crucial baskets during the final frame to give the hosts the win.

Hanochi scored 16 points, Adams added 15 points and Mitrou-Long scored 14 points in the loss. Tillman scored 18 points while Sene and Rodriguez each scored 15 points in the win.

“Nanterre was more aggressive and made less mistakes,” Holon Head Coach Guy Goodes began. “When you lose every quarter you won’t deserve to win the game and we made so many mistakes and when you do at that at this level you will get punished. We came back but they kept scoring and our focus just wasn’t there. We gave up too many second chance points. We weren’t going to have home court advantage and but it really doesn’t give us anything, we will play on the road for the a best of three Play In and we must focus, it won’t be easy but we will be ready for this challenge.”