Hapoel Tel Aviv eased past Nes Ziona 100-77 as Antonio Blakeney set the tone early for the Reds while Johnathan Motley and Marcus Bingham overwhelmed the visitors to take the win. Blakeney scored at will to get the game underway as Johnathan Motley scored on the inside for Dimitrios Itoudis’s team as Jake Van Tubbergen and Bryce Brown’s efforts weren’t enough to keep Amit Sherf’s squad close as the hosts cruised to the victory.

Motley scored 20 points, Blakeney added 16 points and Bingham scored 15 points in the win. Van Tubbergen scored 22 points and Brown put in 13 points in the loss.

“We have been serious and worked seriously the last two days considering the emotions as individuals and as a group,” Itoudis said. “But we are professional and we had to take care of business. We wanted to celebrate the title with our fans and that was great. We had to work the players hard and we had good practices coming into the game.”

“We came in with a defensive game plan that worked for the first few minutes,” Sherf said. “But we really missed out of the game when we allowed them to run and they became very comfortable. We couldn’t cut down their lead once they went up to double digits.”

Antonio Blakeney reflected on the win, “It was a good game and it was good to get a win, after the success in Europe it was good to be able to take care of business. In any situation we have to prevail but we will control what we are able to. We felt very good and we had great energy that we have as a team in the lockerroom which is good and that’s one of the reasons as to why we won the EuroCup.”

Jake Van Tubbergen spoke about the game from his point of view, “We came out with some decent energy in the first quarter but then we turned the ball over and they scored a lot off of that and they got into rhythm. You always go into every game trying to play your hardest and with the intention to win. Now we have to regroup and refocus for next week.”

Antonio Blakeney scored with ease to start off the game for Hapoel Tel Aviv, Bryce Brown from deep and Ricky Lindo inside countered for Nes Ziona, Bar Timor dialled up from long distance as Johnathan Motley and Oz Blayzer dunked, Jake Van Tubbergen put in points but the reds grabbed a 24-20 lead after ten minutes of play. Marcus Bingham and Guy Palatin began to score, Tzuf Ben Moshe and Brown responded from downtown, but Motley, Timor, Ginat and Ish Wainright bumped the Hapoel lead up to 53-33 at halftime.

Lindo and Itay Segev tried to get their squad back into the game, but Motley scored on the inside and Blakeney chalked up points on the outside while Foster and Van Tubbergen traded baskets but Dimitrios Itoudis’s team stayed in front 73-53 after thirty minutes of action. Bingham, Palatin and Motley continued to fill the basket while Van Tubbergen tried to no avail to cut into the Hapoel lead as they ran off with the win.