Hapoel Tel Aviv mounted a second half comeback to defeat Hapoel Jerusalem 85-72 in a battle of the two Israeli teams competing in the EuroCup in a hotly contested battle in the capital city.

Speedy Smith and Austin Wiley took the bull by the horns out of the gate for the hosts as Jared Harper and Justin Smith added to the Jerusalem scoresheet but Patrick Beverley, Marcus Foster and Johnathan Motley kept the visitors in the game but went into halftime down 39-34. However, Motley and Beverley continued to score while Ish Wainwright and Tomer Ginat helped Stefanos Dedas’s team take the lead by the end of the third quarter while Forster and Bruno Caboclo were able to hold Speedy Smith and Harper at bay to take the double digit win.

Next up for Hapoel Tel Aviv is a EuroCup clash against Gran Canaria in at the Reds temporary home due to the security situation in Israel in Samokov, Bulgaria on Tuesday while Hapoel Jerusalem visit Aris Thessaloniki in Greece on Wednesday evening.

Motley scored 22 points, Foster added 18 points while Beverley scored 13 points in the win. Harper paced Jerusalem with 19 points, Speedy Smith scored 14 points and Austin Wiley chipped in with 11 points and 11 rebounds in loss.

“We came prepared but Jerusalem were more aggressive in the first quarter,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Stefanos Dedas began. “When we adjusted our intensity and understood what we had to do defensively we played excellently. The last part of the game they scored very little as we cut down their offense and everybody showed character to get the win.”

“We could have expanded our lead as to how we played in the first half but we had issues doing so and our offense was static,” Jerusalem head coach Yonatan Alon said. “We couldn’t score at points in the second half and then there was a snowball effect from there. We made some poor decisions along the way and the game of basketball is all about decision making. When you make some poor choices you will pay the price.”

Marcus Foster spoke about his team’s victory, “It’s very exciting for my team and fans to start the Israeli league with a win. I knew it was going to be battle at Jerusalem and I didn’t start the season the way that I wanted to but I turned a corner. It shows how much we really want it, we are just like any other team in Europe trying to figure it out. We picked it up in the second half and we showed what we could do. It’s important to win this game as we are both competing in the EuroCup and we are not at our best. We have so much more work to do to get where we want to be.”

Noam Dovrat looked back at the loss, “It’s very disappointing and we were really anticipating this game for our fans and we wanted to really give a good game. It’s tough. We showed what we can do in the first half and we ere missing players that could help but we are still a very team. We couldn’t find our way in the second half and we struggled defensively as we just didn’t show up over the last two quarters.”

Bnei Herzliya downed Hapoel Beer Sheva 87-81 to send their faithful home happy with a home opener win. Yehu Orland’s squad jumped out to a big lead out of the gate thanks to Jimmy Clark but saw it evaporate quickly thanks to points from Iverson Molinar by halftime as the hosts clung to a 51-49 advantage. However, Chris Silva was unstoppable in the 3rd quarter as Herzliya took a 76-60 lead into the final frame and never looked back to notch the win. Silva scored 23 points and Clark added 19 points in the victory while Molinar scored 18 points in the loss.