Hapoel Holon will look to punch their ticket to the Basketball Champions League Round of 16 Group Stage when they take on Petkimspor on Wednesday at 7pm Israel time in a decisive game 3 in their Play In series. The do or die contest will take place in Baku, Azerbaijan as the Turkish club couldn’t guarantee the safety of the Israeli squad in their home country due to the ongoing security situation.

Head Coach Guy Goodes will be without guard Brendan Adams who broke his left foot in the club’s last game which was a State Cup quarterfinal clash at Bnei Herzliya, however, the bench boss will most probably have Mike Davis Jr. may be back at his disposal although his fitness will be determined just before tipoff along with the rest of the roster.

“We’re coming into the third and decisive game of the series. The previous two games were very close and came down to the last few seconds. We’re coming into the game a bit mentally and physically bruised up after the Cup game which included Brendan’s injury, which probably ended his season, and with Mike’s status being up in the air, our rotation has significantly been shortened.”

“We want to continue playing aggressive and tight defense with the main goal being to continue to reduce the number of 3-pointers and the 3-point percentage while on offense to be more precise and move the ball from one player to another in order to generate energy and flow. We need another 40 minutes of team effort and only together will we succeed in this task.”

Idan Zalmanson also commented on the game, “There is no need to exaggerate and say how important this game is to us as a team. We must be focused and give it our all for 40 minutes because this is the kind of game where you don’t have the privilege of not leaving everything on the floor. If we know how to do that then we will return to Israel with our place secured in the top 16 that we so badly want.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv will be in EuroCup action on Wednesday night (19:45 Israel time) as they welcome Bahcesehir to their home away from home in Samakov, Bulgaria. The Reds are in 3rd place with a 9-6 record while the Turkish squad are in first place with a 13-2 record and are 9-1 in their last ten games. While a win will further cement their place in the playoffs a defeat will see them drop down in the standings and jeopardize their postseason aspirations.

“We will face Bahcesehir, who are the top team in our division,” Hapoel bench boss Dimitrios Itoudis began. “This is definitely a position that they deserve as they play excellent basketball, have a strong roster, are well-coached and have many players with Euroleague and Eurocup experience. For us, despite a few injuries and players who were sick, we are getting back on track. In the last game we managed to recover, show character and composure and stayed true to our game plan.”

“We have a tough game ahead of us, but we are focused on building character, developing positive habits, and strengthening cooperation and team chemistry. We are becoming a team that relies on hard work and commitment and that is what should define us in this period.”

Ish Wainwright added, “We are playing against a strong team, who beat us last time and we have to give them a lot of respect. We will be focused and ready to give our best from the jump ball to the end of the game. We have confidence and we are ready to compete.”

Hapoel Jerusalem will also be playing in their respective continental competition when they visit Venezia on Wednesday at 21:45 Israel time for a critical EuroCup matchup. The Reds are currently in 3rd place with a 9-6 record while the Italian club has been surging as they sport a 8-7 record and sit in 7th place in what is a super close Division B that could easily see Yonatan Alon’s team falling out of postseason contention with a loss.

“We have a tough game ahead of us against a very good team, which is also playing very well of late,” the Jerusalem bench boss said. “We will do everything to come out of this with a win. We will face a completely different team than the one we played in the previous round.”

“All of their injured players are back, they look better and are winning. We will see what adjustments we need to make as a result, as we are also a completely different team than the one we were in the first round. Our spirit and defense must be there throughout the game in order to win in such a difficult place.”

Tarik Phillip who played for Venezia back in the 2021-22 season shared his feelings before the important contest, “We need to come out and play a good game, always be first and execute what we can with our offense. When we played our basketball we were very good against Hapoel Beer Sheva and we need to continue to be physical and set the tone so that the opponent is uncomfortable. It feels good to come back here to Venezia, I hope we will take the victory,”