By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
After a couple of one-possession games between Hapoel U-NET Holon and Besiktas Icrypex, the Israeli’s managed to get somewhat of an ‘easier’ home win with 74-68 and win the Basketball Champions League Play-In series.
Hapoel completed the turnaround after going down 0-1 in the series and will join Group I in the Round of 16, next to MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg and Galatasaray Nef. The fourth member will be decided between JDA Dijon and VEF Riga with the former currently holding a 1-0 lead in the Play-In series.
Adam Smith led the way for the winning side with 20 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal while Chris Johnson scored 12 and Steve Zack ten points.
“Every game we won for the past week has been a great team effort. We know the situations, the past three games were do or die, and I think that’s when we play our best basketball honestly,” Smith said after the game and added.
“Every night, it’s gonna be something different. Different issues, different problems. I think tonight we struggled because of some foul trouble a few guys got into. But, again, we were resilient and played through it.”
For Besiktas, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had 15 points, nine assists, five boards in addition to Dedric Lawson’s 13 points and ten rebounds. Trevon Bluiett and Kenan Sipahi helped with 11 points each.
Although it was a somewhat ‘easier’ job for Holon as they led by as much as 15 points (53-38) in the third quarter, Besiktas did force them to work until the very end for the win.
The Turks cut the gap to just two points (70-68) in the final minute but Smith was cold-blooded from the free-throw line with 2-2 while Frederic Bourdillon sealed the deal with a layup following a miss from Besiktas.
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League