Trento mounted a late comeback to down Hapoel Tel Aviv 79-73 as their record dropped to 3-2 in EuroCup play. The Italians jumped out to an early 26-18 lead after ten minutes of play thanks to baskets by Anthony Lamb, Toto Forray and Eigirdas Zukauskas. Jonathan Motley and Marcus Foster started to fill the basket and help the Reds take a 69-58 lead with 6:40 left in the game, however Anthony Lamb started scoring to lead Paolo Galboati’s team on a 20-5 run to end the game and snatch the victory.
“I think we started the game poorly on the defensive end as we gave up 26 points in the first quarter. We played better in the second and third quarters in this respect. It was not an easy game, we were in a position to win, we led by nine, but in the last four or five minutes we missed so many easy layups and free throws and they scored difficult shots and tough 3-pointers.”
“It’s a sweet win. (Hapoel) are unbelievable, the talent they have. But we played with a great heart and a great desire,” Paolo Galbiati said after the game. “I’m happy for the players. We have to keep pushing. The key was the desire we put on the floor with everybody, no matter the mistakes. This was a great game for us. A great bounce back after the very bad loss we had last week. I think it will be a sweet night for the players because it was a huge win over an unbelievable roster with incredible players.”
The game MVP Anthony Lamb, “My teammates put me in a great spot and we took advantage of mismatches and we made the most of it. My teammates played unbelievably hard. We cleaned up the rebounds and a lot of the turnovers. Hapoel is an amazing team and they played so hard the whole game. It was a really tough win.”
Hapoel Jerusalem came up short against U-BT Cluj-Napoca 81-73 as their EuroCup record fell to 3-2 on the season. The visiting Romanian squad grabbed a 44-36 as Karel Guzman, Patrick Hervey and Adam Mokoka led the way, but Justin Smith Khadeen Carrington and Jared Harper countered to tie the game up at 67-67 with six minutes remaining in the game. However, triples by Harvey and Xavier Simpson along with baskets by Guzman and Mokoka for a 13-0 run to notch the win.

Jared Harper – Photo Credit: Dov Halickman
Harper scored 19 points, Carrington added 11 points and Smith scored 10 points in the loss. Guzman scored 20 points, Hervey scored 17 points and Simpson chipped in with 15 points in the win.

Yonatan Alon – Photo credit: Yehuda Halickman
“We lost this game due to a lack of aggressiveness,” Jerusalem coach Yonatan Alon said. “We were too soft during too many parts of the game and when you play like that against such a deep and athletic team they will make you pay. This is not our basketball, not our way and we will make all the necessary corrections to learn from this loss.”

Photo credit: Hapoel Jerusalem
“It’s a good team and very talented offensively but we never stopped fighting,” Mokoka said in a post-game courtside interview. “We had ups and downs, but from the beginning to the end we kept playing together and that’s how we got this win. We are in a good spell right now and we will try to build from here.”
“I am very happy with the performance and the fact that we won on a very difficult court against a good team,” Cluj head coach Mihai Silvasan said. “It’s a sign that we are growing from game to game in our effort to become a better team. We need to move forward step by step and be a team in every sense of the word.”

Jeremy Morgan – Photo Credit: Yehuda Halickman
Jeremy Morgan looked back at getting loss, “We just didn’t watch the level of play. They came out more aggressive and we need to be the team that is over aggressive, that’s how we play and we didn’t do that. There are little things we can fix when we go back and watch the video, but the main thing is continuing to build our identity, which is to play 110% all the time.”
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