Hapoel Holon fell to Telekom Bonn 72-65 as their Basketball Champions League record dropped to 3-2 and with one game remaining in the regular season group stage. The purples had all kinds of trouble scoring early and had to dig out of an early hole, however, Amit Sherf’s team grabbed a slim 55-54 lead after the third quarter. But Holon once again had issues putting the ball in the basket in the fourth quarter as Roel Moors’s squad held the hosts and grabbed the win.

In two weeks Holon will play their final group game against Bursaspor as they will look to punch their ticket to the either the seined group stage or at least the Play-In Round.

Shawn Dawson led the way with 15 points, Drew Crawford added 11 points and CJ Harris chipped in with 10 points in the loss. Savion Flagg, Christian Flagg and Noah Kirkwood all scored 12 points in the win.

“We started poorly and they ran out to an 18-4 lead,” Holon head coach Amit Sherf began. “From that moment we fought and went to for the rebounds and played better one-on-one. The second half we struggled especilly in the fourth quarter when we couldn’t score a point in the first five minutes. This is the level we want to be and we will need to find our flow on offense when our 3’s don’t go in. We missed some momentum 3’s as well and we needed to find more inside when we are forced to do so.”

“It was a very difficult game,” Bonn Head Coach Roel Moors began. “Holon is a very solid and structured team that plays a good defensive set. We didn’t turn they ball over much and it was clear that we won the game on defense as we held Holon to 65 points. The game did not have much rhythm but we came out with the win.”

Yotam Hanochi locked back at the contest, “We were there and came back after a bad first half. We were up by a point and we needed to run and play our basketball to finish the game and we didn’t do that. We lost on the small things and offensive rebounds. We are a strong group and we will overcome this. We worked hard and I believe in our team.”

Savion Flagg also spoke about the game, “In the first half we gave up a lot of second chance points and in the second half we buckled down and stuck to the scouting report and this is how we came out with the win.”

Christian Sengfelder and Noah Kirkwood helped Bonn open up a quick doubt digit lead, but Shawn Dawson and Hans Vanwijn for Holon helped cut the gap down to just 4-points, as the Germans led 20-16 after ten minutes of play. Drew Crawford and Nick Johnson kept the purples very close to Bonn in the second quarter, but Savion Flagg and Thomas Kennedy kept the visitors in front 41-37 at halftime.

CJ Harris got hot in the third quarter as Dawson and Crawford continued to make their mark on the game and take a 55-54 lead after the third quarter, but Sengfelder, Savion Flagg and Brian Fobbs scored over the course of the final frame while keeping Holon’s offense at bay to spur Bonn to the win.