Hapoel Holon fell to Bursaspor 75-74 in dramatic fashion after having been in front almost the entire game. Despite the loss, the purples will head into the Basketball Champions League Play In from second place in their group and will face Oostende in the best of 3 series in which head coach Amir Sherf’s team will hole home court advantage.

Shawn Dawson scored a trio of triples to get Hapoel Holon going as they grabbed a 19-10 lead after ten minutes of action. Bursaspor’s Anthony Brown and Michael Young started to cut into the advantage, but Hans Vanwign and CJ Harris made sure to send Amit Sherf’s squad into halftime with a 36-28 lead.

Netanel Artzi and Justin Smith paced Holon in the third quarter while Omer Utku Ai kept the Turkish squad close, but Brown kept scoring in bunches to put his team in front but Dawson drilled home a triple to give the purples a 74-73 lead. However, Johnathan Hamilton was fouled with less than a second remaining in the game and hit a pair of key free throws to take the 1-point win.

Dawson scored 17 points and Justin Smith added 16 points in the loss. Brown scored 26 points and Hamilton chipped in with 15 points in the win.

“Generally, we finished in 2nd place in this group with everything that we have been through not being at home for 1.5 months,” Sherf said. “We were away from our fans, we needed them today and it would have been a big advantage. We could have finished in first place but that is on us. We started ok on defense but they kept fighting. It’s a tough loss but we will play against Oostende and one of the great coaches to advance to the Round of 16.”

“We knew that we had some injured players and had a rough rhythm lately and that this would be a tough game for us,” Bursaspor coach Jurij Zdovc said. “We had nothing to lose and we felt that they had pressure and we felt that we could beat them which is what we did. We played good defense for 40 minutes, put pressure on them and were more physical as we learnt something from the last game we played against them.”

Shawn Dawson gave his thoughts on the game and having started on fire from deep, “It gives a good feeling and motivation and it gets you into the game, things felt hot, but at the end of the day we didn’t get the win and we didn’t do enough. We will learn from that and come in better for the elimination games. You win some and you lose some. They came with two main players that were out and almost no chance of advancing to the next round. It’s hard to come in because you know you’re supposed to win and going forward you need to come with a clear mind and every game is new.”

The game MVP Anthony Brown spoke about the victory, “We just believed and we had some young players who stepped up taught don’t have a lot of opportunities to play. Johnny Hamilton hit some good free throws and as coach said, just believe. I wasn’t playing my game that much in the first half and then I was looking for some open shots in the second and they started going in.”

In Israeli league action, Nes Ziona defeated Maccabi Ramat Gan 86-74 aa Tzuf Ben Moshe starred for the hosts in the win. Shmulik Brenner’s squad did as they pleased early on as Jimmy Hall, Alex Hamilton and Isaiah Miles got busy for the visitors to grab a 45-39 lead at halftime. However, a solid second half led by Ben Moshe, Rawle Alkins, Isaiah Whitehead and Jerome Meyinsse helped Elad Hasin’s team to get back into the game and take the win.

Ben Moshe scored 19 points, Alkins added 15 points, Whitehead scored 14 points and Meyinsse chipped in with 13 points in the win. Hamilton scored 19 points, Miles put in 15 points and Hall dropped 13 points in the loss.