By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The fourth Basketball Champions League win in a row for Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem created a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three Play-In series against Ukraine champion Prometey. A convincing display shaped the win, 95-70, Wednesday evening.
Adam Ariel scored a season-high 24 points with 8/12 field goals and 6/8 triples in one-way traffic. Israel’s Winner League leaders never trailed with the advantage peaking at 35 points.
Belgian Retin Obasohan racked up 19 points. Former Connecticut standout Jalen Adams followed with 18 points powered by four three-pointers.
The Pais Arena crowd enjoyed a dominant performance delivered by the players coached by Yotam Halperin. Outscoring the visitors, 40-16, in the first quarter set the pace. Besides hitting 16/32 from beyond the arc and nearing 51% in field goals accuracy, limiting Prometey to seven points in the third quarter erased the remaining hopes for an improbable comeback.
Ukrainian guard Illia Sydorov punched in a team-high 15 points in the rough visit at Jerusalem. Oleksandr Lypovyy and D’Angelo Harrison generated 14 and 13 points, respectively. Sean Evans was not available.
The team coached by Ronen Ginzburg was coming off 14 straight wins across all competitions and standing at 22-0 in Ukraine’s SuperLeague but remained idle since December 28. The last defeat was against Lenovo Tenerife during the BCL Regular Season, back on November 10.
Game 2 is projected to be held next week at the reverse venue. Game 3, if necessary, will return the Play-In rivals to Jerusalem.
Postgame press conference:
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League