Hapoel Holon downed Ludwigsburg 71-68 in a tight battle in Germany in Champions League action. The purples now move to 3-2 in Round of 16 group stage play and will look to clinch first place and home court advantage in a best-of-3 quarterfinal series with a win next week at home over JDA Dijon.

Guy Goodes’s squad led for the majority of the game as Chris Johnson, Michale Kyser and Rafi Menco paced Holon to a 28-24 lead at halftime, while Joe Ragland, Adam Smith and Johnson came up with big shots late in the second half to cancel out Jonah Radebaugh’s stellar performance.

Johnson scored 17 points, Ragland added 15 points and 9 assists while Menco and Kyser each scored 11 points in the win. Radebaugh led the way for the hosts with 22 points, Tremmell Darden added 13 points and Jordan Hulls scored 11 points in the loss.

“We came to play against a very very aggressive opponent,” Goodes said. “We knew they would be tired after playing Monday but they would play hard on the boards and press the opponent. We succeeded in a tough place against a tough opponent with a great coach but we didn’t finish the job as we have to play Dijon in Israel and we will look forward to that next week.”

“We knew how they play and there is a big difference in possessions 71-48 (for Ludwigsburg) as they steal the ball a lot and go to the offensive glass. But we did a good job defensively but we can’t ignore that they played Monday. I am happy that we succeeded to make some big baskets at the end to win the game.”

Chris Johnson spoke about the victory, “It’s was a tough win and we know Ludwisgburg is a good team. We had to play aggressive as they played Monday and we came out here and got the job done. Coach emphasized that and we have box out and we matched their intensity.”

“We are disappointed as we had many chances to win the game,” Ludwigsburg coach John Patrick explained. “We were playing without some players who were sick and some played but couldn’t give their normal power. Holon made some big 3’s at the end and we made some mistakes. We had problems driving and kicking. The guys who played good team basketball had good +/-. We can’t use being tired as an excuse as we were at home and all teams deal with this. If we would have passed the ball a bit more at the end we could have won but we played too much ego ball.”

Jonah Radebaugh reflected on the defeat, “We played really hard and at the end they made some big shots and we fought back but they just adjusted and figured us out at one point. They made big shots when it mattered and we didn’t make the stops.”