Hapoel Holon just slipped by Strasbourg 81-80 to advance to the Basketball Champions League Final Four after completing a 2-0 quarterfinal series sweep to become the first Israeli team to reach the prestigious stage of the competition.

We made H-I-S-T-O-R-Y 👑🔝💜 pic.twitter.com/xLuMESzUfn

— Hapoel Holon (@HapoelHolonBC) April 12, 2022

Guy Goodes’s squad came out strong to start the game but the hosts built up a 49-35 lead at halftime. However, Tyrus McGee began to chip away at the advantage in the third quarter while Joe Ragland scored a number of huge baskets down the stretch including the winning basket with 11 seconds remaining in regulation time to take the win.

The Final Four will take place between May 6-8 in Bilbao, Spain where Holon will tip-off against Tenerife who disposed of Tofas Bursa in two games as well as the Spanish Island squad will look to win their second Champions League title.

McGee led Holon with 21 points, Ragland added 16 points and Johnson chipped in with 15 points in the victory. Matt Mitchell paced the hosts with 24 points and Jordan Howard scored 11 points in the loss.

“Strasbourg played unbelievable in the first half and were very aggressive for any action we did,” Goodes said. “At halftime I looked at the stats and I said that we are far, far, far away from our targets. I told them that if we don’t match their aggressiveness we will lose by 15-20 or even 30 points. But I am happy that we did it in the third quarter and won that by 15 points and we kept cutting the gap. At the end we had fouls to use intelligently, plus a few big shots and we won the game and made history.”

“We showed that we could challenge them,” Strasbourg coach Lassi Tuovi said. “But in the second half they showed why they are beating all of the teams, they are very confident. It was a tough and physical game, we lost by a point and we respect that.”

Holon captain Guy Pnini reflected on the game, “It’s a very exciting moment for this club. This is my 5th season and we started a process when we joined the BCL. It was tough in the beginning but last year we made it to the Top 8 and it was a very big thing for us. We lost in the QF and now we made history for the club.”

Matt Mitchell who led Strasbourg in scoring also spoke about the game from his point of view, “It’s a very tough loss and we can go back and look at the third quarter and the mistakes we made letting them get back into the game. But they are a very good team and we have to go back and learn from our mistakes and move forward.”

Hayden Dalton scored the opening points for Hapoel Holon while Chris Johnson got to work but Strasbourg ran off a 13-0 run as 8 different players scored for the hosts in the first quarter including Gaylor Curier, DeAndre Lansdowne and Ike Udanoh to take a 25-16 lead after ten minutes.

Matt Mitchell, Yannis Morin and Jordan Howard kept finding the bottom of the basket for Lassi Trove’s squad while Tyrus McGee countered for Guy Goodes’s team but Strasbourg extended the lead to 49-35 by halftime.

Holon came out like a house on fire in the third quarter as McGee took over and scored at will while Adam Smith, Frederic Bourdillon ands Johnson outscored the hosts 27-12 to snatch a one-point, 62-61 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Mitchell and Howard got busy to begin the fourth quarter, Joe Ragland responded but Leo Cavalier came right back for the hosts as Strasbourg went back in front 75-72 midway through the final frame. Smith and Ragland hit hide baskets down the stretch to give Holon a 79-77 lead, Mitchell came back with a 3-point play but Ragland scored the winner to send Holon to the Basketball Champions League Final Four 81-80 in Bilbao, Spain!