Hapoel Jerusalem escaped Denmark with a 72-71 win over Bakken Bears to move their Basketball Champions League group stage record to 2-1. Mareks Mejeris put down a game winning dunk with 2.2 seconds left on the clock to complete the comeback and notch the victory.

The hosts grabbed a 35-28 lead at halftime as Michel Diouf and Deng Adel led the way, but Zach Hankins and Mejeris kept Aleksandar Dzikic’s team hanging around while Khadeen Carrington and Speedy Smith helped the Reds get back into the game to take a 65-60 lead with under four minutes left in the game. The Bears took the lead on a Ryan Evans jumper with 6 seconds remaining but Smith inbound the ball to Randolph who took the rock on the abalone into the paint and dished it off to Mejeris when jammed to take the hard earned W.

Mejeris led the way with 15 points, Hankins added 15 points and 9 rebounds while Randolph scored 14 points in the win. Diouf paced Bakken with 18 points and Adel chipped in with 15 points in the loss.

“It was a tough game it was what we were expecting,” Dzikic said. “In the end we won, it was an entertaining last minute and as a coach entertainment is not what you want. I was expecting better control on Diouf and Adel. In the last quarter we had to do better job rebounding and if we were better in that area we would have had a less entertaining game.”

“We won the rebound battle for the first time and that gave us the chance to get the W, but it wasn’t enough,” Anders Sommer said. “We came out the way we wanted to and did a lot of good things but never got the flow and pace that we wanted as we need to get the game over 80 points. We stayed in the game and focussed and had the game on the line.”

Mejeris spoke about the game that was, “They fought today and put themselves in the position to win, we can’t allow that as a team in the future but we are happy with the win. It’s entertaining basketball but as a team I’d rather play safe ball +20.”

Deng Adel also reflected on the contest, “We did what coach wanted and we made a step from our last game. Once they had a little run we stayed composed and didn’t overreact but it came back to the last minute. If we can run it back I think we can get it.”

Bakken Bears took control of the game early as Michel Diouf, Elijah Childs, Ryan Evans and Deng Adel all found the bottom of the basket as Marek Mejeris and Zach Hankins scored for Hapoel Jerusalem but the hosts stayed in front 19-12 after ten minutes play.

Hankins scored inside and Noam Dovrat hit a corner 3-ball to begin the second quarter while Skyler Bowlin answered with pair from deep, Gustav Knudsen and Tony Carr scored as the Bears took a 35-28 advantage into halftime.

Levi Randolph nailed a pair of triples at the start of the third period, Diouf answered, Speedy Smith and Hankins scored, Evans and Carr responded but Mejeris, Khadeen Carrington scored to cut the lead to 50-49 after thirty minutes of action.

Itay Segev, Mejeris and Carrington scored for Aleksandar Dzikic’s squad while Darko Jukic and Diouf found the basket for Anders Sommer’s team, but Smith with a deuce and Dovrat with a triple grabbed a 65-60 lead with 3:53 remaining in regulation time.

Randolph hit a 3-pointer, Deng came back with a quick 5 points, Evans scored a midrange jumper to give Bakken the lead but Randolph dished the ball off to Mejeris for a dunk with 2.2 seconds left to win the game for Jerusalem.