Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Bayern Munich 82-72 as Elijah Bryant and Dan Oturu controlled the game from the get go to improve their record to 13-5 on the season. Elijah Bryant and Dan Oturu paced Hapoel Tel Aviv out of the gate while Oscar Da Silva and Wenyen Gabriel responded Bayern Munich but points from Jonathan Motley gave the Reds a 21-14 lead after the opening quarter.

Vladimir Lucic, Isiaha Mike and Andres Obst tried to keep the hosts close but Bryant and Otutu scored with ease while Antonio Blakeney scored from the inside and outside to give Dimitrios Itoudis’s team a 44-32 advantage. Yam Madar, Oturu and Blakeney continued to find the bottom of the basket in the third quarter to bump the lead up to 64-46 after thirty minutes of action but Obst and David McCormack started to drill down the lead however, it would not be enough as the Reds wrapped up the win.

Bryant scored 18 points, Oturu out in a 16 points while Blakeney and Chris Jones each scored 12 points a piece in the victory while Obst scored 18 points, McCormack added 12 points and Mike scored 11 points in the loss.

Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis reflected on the win, “The way we managed to keep Bayern’s scorers and team below 20 points in each of the first three quarters with a transition to a new coach shows that we were the better team. We want to accept the challenges against the historical teams and we are trying to build something that will last.”

Bayern Munich Head Coach Svetislav Pesic shared his thoughts on the defeat, “We have to play much better and we felt at some times that we played 5 against zero versus Hapoel on the floor. Our first job is to play aggressively and not be too comfortable and we didn’t use our fouls.”

The MVP Elijah Bryant spoke about the victory, “We got the win and that’s what matters. We have a lot of things to correct but we will take this one and move on. Bayern doesn’t stop until the final buzzer and you have to be locked in the entire game.”

Dan Oturu looked back at the win, “We’re are trying to do good things and we wanted to come out with the win and we did a good job in this game. I want to thank my teammates, coaching staff and fans. We respect each and every opponent in this league and every game poses a certain challenge and we now have to focus on our upcoming Israeli league game.