Hapoel Holon fell to Tenerife 78-71 in the Basketball Champions League semifinal and will battle for third place on Sunday against Ludwigsburg who they met in the earlier stages of the competition. Manresa will tip off versus Tenerife for the BCL crown.

The purples who were accompanied by over 1,000 rabid fans had a spectacular European season once head coach Guy Goodes took over the reins during the Play In series against Besiktas with his team on an 0-1 hole.

After advancing to the Round of 16 group stage, Goodes’s squad disposed of Strasbourg to punch their ticket to Final Four where their luck finally ran out versus the Spanish ACB side.

Txus Vidoretta’s team jumped out to a 42-33 halftime lead as Giorgi Shermadini and Marcelinho Huertas led the way. Joe Ragland, Rafi Menco and Chris Johnson cut the advantage down to 72-71 with under two minutes to play, but Tenerife scored their free throws down the stretch to take the victory.

Huertas scored 17 points and added 9 assists while Shermadini added 14 points in the win while Ragland paced Holon with 22 points, Menco scored 15 points and Johnson chipped in with 14 points on the loss.

“I feel like it was a hard-fought game from both teams,” said Ragland. “Credit to Tenerife. They really did the things they wanted to do, but we fought back and had a chance to win the game. Credit to our hard work, we had a chance to win, but it just didn’t happen that way.”

“I think in the beginning, we were in shock a little bit because maybe this is our first time in the Final Four in the BCL with this big stage and a lot of players have never been in this stage,” said Holon head coach Guy Goodes. “It took us time to adjust to understand where we are and what we need to do. Overall, I’m really, really proud of our guys and our organization. We are building a culture, a winning culture.”

“Very tough game. We knew what we were going to face,” said Huertas. “I think we had the most part of the game under control except for a few minutes in the last quarter. They were able to move the ball well offensively and hit open shots. They hit three 3’s in a row which allowed them to come back. … We’re very happy for our performance and we want more.”

“We are happy because we controlled the game, the players made a very good gameplan,” said Tenerife head coach Txus Vidoretta. “At the end, we had the answers for … the key moments of the game. Now, we have to make the next step in less than 48 hours.”