Hapoel Tel Aviv fell to Bayern Munich 86-84 in their Euroleague season opener in a game that took place at their temporary home in Sofia, Bulgaria. After a fairly even first half, the visitors went up by close to twenty points in the third quarter, however, the reds mounted a late game comeback that just fell short at the end despite Dan Oturu recording a double-double and having five players in double-digits.

Andreas Obst had the hot hand early on for Bayern Munich, Zach Leday responded for Hapoel Tel Aviv while Johannes Theimann and Dan Oturu traded baskets in the paint, but baskets by Jacob Toppin helped the Reds to a 21-16 lead after ten minutes of play. Justinian Jessup started to fill the bucket as Eugene German tried to keep Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad in front but Obst kept hitting his shots to help the visitors to a 10-0 run and a 44-39 advantage at halftime.

Jessup scored from the outside as Oturu continued to score on the inside to get the second half underway, Miles Norris extended the lead for Anton Gavel’s squad as the Germans went into the final frame holding a 68-57 lead. Marjon Beauchamp went from the outside and inside Toppin, Oturu and Vasilije Micic all scored while Antonio Blakeney went off from deep and added a 3-point play but Johannes Voightmann’s triple notched the win for Bayern.

Oturu scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Micic added 14 points while Toppin and Blakeney scored 11 points a piece in the loss. Obst scored 19 points, Theimann out in 15 points, Jessyp scored 11 points and Voightmann dropped 10 points in the win.

“We’re disappointed with the outcome,” Itoudis began. “We had a good opening quarter and kept a well offensive structured team to 16 points but after that we allowed them to play in their comfort zone and they outscored us. We made an amazing comeback and were in the game. We knew we could play defense but the turnovers hurt us at the end of the day. We looked dissented with the newcomers ad we need to work and get the right lessons out of this loss. All teams are very good and we have to show character.”

“It was an important win and it’s always difficult to win on the road,” Gavel said. “The third quarter was by far the best of the game and we put up a lead but we lost it in the 4th. We played selfish and we couldn’t get the stops. But I am happy that the guys were able to seal the win and we were definitely happy.”

Jacob Toppin, I think we showed a lot of good signs as a team and we were down by a lot and we fought back to make it a game again. We have to not get into the hole like we did but we showed really good signs near the end but we couldn’t finish the game. We have to go back to the drawing board. It will be a battle very night and we can’t take anything lightly.”