Hapoel Holon slipped by Promitheas 93-92 in a thriller to keep their slim chances alive to advance to the Basketball Champions League quarterfinals.

The purples took control of the game early as Kevin Hervey, Tahjere McCall and Justin Smith were all busy to grab a 47-34 lead at halftime, but Cameron Reynolds and Anthony Cowan helped the hosts come all the way back to tie the game up at 90-90 with under a minute to go in regulation. However, Holon Head Coach Amit Sherf drew up a perfect play for a Drew Crawford 3-pointer to put the visitors ahead for good to take the victory.

Hervey scored 20 points, McCall added 14 points and Yotam Hanochi scored 12 points in the win. Cowan scored 30 points and Reynolds added 19 points in the loss.

With the win Holon now 3-2 will have an opportunity next week to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals of the competition if they defeat Murcia in Hungary and AEK bests Promitheas. Should that not happen the purples European adventure will come to a close for the season.

“It’s a big win especially here at Promitheas who are a very good team,” Holon Head Coach Amit Sherf said. “We needed to win by double digits and while this was a great game for us, the loss against Promitheas in Hungary made us have to deal with point differential. We will, go to Murcia and hope that AEK will be able to defeat Promitheas and we can advance from a very tough group.”

“We have to congratulate Holon for the win,” Ilias Papatheodorou said. “Holon controlled the game from the beginning and we did not adjust to their quality. We had a lot of bad defensive moments in the first half. They have a lot of quality and players who were hurt were now back and newcomers like Hervey were also very good. Our players gave everything.”

Kevin Hervey spoke about the victory, “It was a great game from the team. We shot well and shared the ball, we had some defensive lapses but we did enough to win the game.”

Anthony Cowan looked back at the game, “Hats off to them it was a big win and a lot of players stepped up and they hit a lot of big shots. It wasn’t enough from our side. This was one of the best crowds for us and it was a lot of fun to be in.”

Tahjere McCall, Kevin Hervey and along with Justin Smith and Netanel Artzi found points for Hapoel Holon but Anthony Cowan and De’Shawn Stephens answered for Promitheas to give the Greeks a 24-21 lead after ten minutes of play. Han Vanwign and Yotam Hanochi hit a pair from deep a piece to get the second quarter underway, Cameron Reynolds scored for the hosts but McCall had the hot hand to send the purples into halftime with a 47-34 advantage.

Harvey and Cameron Reynolds traded 3-pointers, Jaime Echenique scored a quartet of buckets for Promitheas, Drew Crawford, Artzi and CJ Harris all dialed up from long distance to give Amit Sherf’s team a 73-59 lead after thirty minutes of action. Hunter Hale and Cowan began the fourth quarter from beyond the arc, Hervey came back with a deuce and a triple, Chris Coffey and Niv Misgav traded baskets, Cowan and Reynolds went from deep to draw even but Crawford with a 3-pointer gave Holon the lead for good as the purples took the win.