Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Ulm 97-90 to secure second place overall in EuroCup Division A which hands the Reds a direct ticket to the competition’s quarterfinals. Jonathan Motley was a powerful force throughout for Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad while Marcus Foster also found crucial points as Israeli Ben Saraf, Justinian Jessup and Alfonso Plummer kept Ty Harrelson’s team in front by double digits in the fourth quarter. But Yam Madar spurred a late game comeback and scored the key baskets down the stretch to take the hard earned victory.

Motley scored 24 points while Foster and Madar each added 18 points in the win. Jessup scored 18 points, Saraf put in 17 points and Plummer scored 16 points in the loss.

“The mathematics wasn’t important here but what mattered was the heart and belief and we talked about that at halftime,” Itoudis said. “We were always a step back on their great shooters that they have, Ben Saraf was good and we allowed him to score from the left and many other details but we knew we had to play better with better spacing and we defended great. We played a great team that had a target as well.”

“We played a really good EuroCup season and put ourselves in position to make the playoffs,” Ulm Head Coach Ty Harrelson said following the game. “But nothing went our way the last month. We really competed and we had a great chance to win. We have a couple of guys out and we still had an opportunity to win but it still doesn’t take away the sting of not playing in the playoffs but that is sports and now we will focus on the BBL.”

The game MVP Jonathan Motley spoke about the win, “This was a very tough game against a hard team who were fast, denied the ball and played well on the boards. Ulm was a tough team team with a good coach, but we did what we needed to at the end. We have a lot of experience, I played in the Euroleague and we have a great Euroleague coach. We were down 6-7 points, but we were able to comeback to take the win.”

Jonathan Motley put in points on the inside, Marcus Foster hit a pair from the outside and Bruno Caboclo found points to get Hapoel Tel Aviv off and running while Ben Saraf, Justinian Jessup and Philipp Herkenhoff responded for Ulm but deuce and triple by Bar Timor gave the reds a 29-21 lead after ten minutes of play. Foster continued to score for the visitors, Alfonso Plummer answered for the hosts, Saraf and Joe Ragland traded baskets, Motley put in points in the paint, but Karim Jallow and Plummer scored to give Ulm a 50-49 advantage at halftime.

Yam Madar and Tomer Ginat began the third quarter with points, Jessup had the hot hand, Saraf scored as well and Marcio Santos also found points for Ty Harrelson’s squad, while Timor and Ragland kept Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad close but down 72-65 after thirty minutes of action. Ragland, Ish Wainright and Foster tried to close the gap, Plummer, Jallow and Herkenhoff came right back with points, Yam Madar scored as did Nelson Weidemann but buckets by Motley and Madar closed out the win.