Hapoel Tel Aviv advances to the Euroleague quarterfinals despite a tough loss to Monaco, while Maccabi Tel Aviv now shifts focus to the Israeli league. Hapoel Jerusalem returns to action with a win.
The Euroleague regular season came to an end as Hapoel Tel Aviv advanced to the quarterfinals, where they will tip off against Real Madrid, while Maccabi Tel Aviv will now turn their focus onto the Israeli league, which returned to action over the weekend with Hapoel Jerusalem facing Bnei Herzliya in the capital city.
Hapoel Tel Aviv was overwhelmed by Monaco 105-85 as the Reds finished the Euroleague regular season in sixth place with a record of 23-15. They now face Real Madrid in the best-of-five quarterfinal series. Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad came out flat as Monaco went right after the visitors from the get-go, as Jaron Blossomgame and Mike James helped the hosts to a 58-41 lead at halftime, and they never looked back as they recorded the blowout win.
Chris Jones scored 17 points, Dan Oturu added 14 points, and Colin Malcolm put in 13 points in the loss, while Blossomgame scored 30 points and James added 30 points in the victory.
The Reds will now ready themselves for a quarterfinal series that will feature the first two games in Madrid on Wednesday, April 29, and Friday, May 1, while Games 3 and, if necessary, Game 4 will be played the following week in Sofia, Bulgaria, with the winner punching their ticket to the Final Four in Athens later in the month.
“Congratulations to Monaco,” Hapoel Tel Aviv head coach Dimitrios Itoudis began. “They played better than us and deserved to win. Unfortunately, from the very beginning – how we started the game and how it continued until the third quarter – that wasn’t us. We have to accept that we didn’t show up, not even close to our potential or our standards. We’ll move on to the playoffs, that’s an achievement. We didn’t want to end the regular season like this, but it happens in basketball, and now we’ll focus on what’s ahead.”
Maccabi Tel Aviv fell to Bologna 89-85 to finish their Euroleague season with an 18-20 record. Derrick Alston, Carsen Edwards, and Saliou Niang helped Bologna take the lead early on, while Lonnie Walker and
Oshae Brissett tried to keep Oded Katash’s team close as the Italians took a 40-36 advantage into halftime.
Edwards and Aliou Diarra continued to pace the visitors as Walker and Roman Sorkin responded for the hosts throughout the third quarter. Zach Hankins began to score with ease throughout the final frame, and Walker tried to narrow the gap as time wound down, but Diarra and Alston made sure to keep pace as Nenad Jakovljevic’s squad picked up the win.
Walker scored 24 points, Brissett added 11 points, and Sorkin scored 10 points in the loss, while Edwards put in 19 points, Alston scored 18 points, and Niang chipped in 16 points in the win.
“It was not easy for us recently. We lost a lot of players to injuries, and our energy went down after we lost the chance to make it to the Play-In,” Katash said following the game.
Hapoel Jerusalem downed Bnei Herzliya 102-81 as Justin Smith starred in the Israeli league’s return to action.
Yonatan Alon’s squad opened up an early lead and kept pouring in the points throughout the game, as Smith, along with Khadeen Carrington, Jared Harper, and Cassius Winston, overwhelmed Yehu Orland’s team.
Smith scored 28 points, Carrington added 20 points, and Harper put in 17 points in the win, while Omer Sadeh scored 18 points, Daeshon Francis chipped in with 16 points, and Frederic Bourdillon scored 13 points in the loss. Khadeen Carrington got Hapoel Jerusalem off to a good start, while Evan Bruinsma, Daeshon Francis, and DJ Burns all responded for Bnei Herzliya. But points from Roi Huber, a triple from Roy Paretzky, and a Justin Smith dunk gave the hosts a 27-20 lead after 10 minutes of play. Jared Harper started to put his mark on the game, while Smith filled the basket to his heart’s delight to go up 43-27, but Burns, Frederic Bourdillon, and Jordon Varnado cut the lead down to 50-40 by halftime.
Bourdillon and Varnado scored to begin the third quarter, Carrington quickly answered, while Cassius Winston and Smith scored to bump up the Jerusalem lead to 74-57 after 30 minutes of action. Francis and Omer Sadeh put in points to get the final frame underway; Winston, Carrington, and Smith all came back with baskets. Sadeh kept filling the bucket at the other end, but more points from Carrington and Smith wrapped up the win.
Yonatan Alon spoke about the win. “I wasn’t sure what we would see, as there was a lot of rust, but we did what we needed to in order to pick up the victory. We are in touch with the players who aren’t here, and we hope they will return if there will be quiet, but we will see as things progress.”
Yehu Orland looked back at the loss. “We knew we had a bit of a short roster, and some of the players just arrived. Add to that the injury to Evan Bruinsma – it hurt us, as we didn’t have the size that we needed in order to match up with Jerusalem. I’m happy that we had 23 assists, but we need to improve everything else.”
Jared Harper shared his thoughts “It feels good but a bit weird, as we haven’t played in about two months. But it was good to be back playing here at home. I think we have a really good team and an opportunity for guys to step up. We miss the guys who aren’t here, but Justin Smith and Dymtro Skapintsev all stepped up.”
Frederic Bourdillon spoke about the defeat. “It’s amazing to come back to play, and we really didn’t practice much over the past two months. In the big picture, it’s very important that the sport is back, and as for the guys who didn’t come back, it’s really personal. We tried to build a team for the playoffs and not just for this game, and to compete all the way until the end.”
Elitzur Netanya got by Maccabi Rishon Lezion 72-68 as the Diamond City squad grabbed an early lead and never looked back to notch the win. Javante McCoy scored 18 points, and Otis Frazier added 16 points in the victory, while Amin Stevens scored 21 points and DJ Burns put in 17 points in the loss.