By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
The plan for Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem remains simple, despite playing home games away from Israel and changing the head coach during the 2023-24 campaign. From reaching the championship game of the 2023 Basketball Champions League Final Four held in Malaga to going all the way.
A rare loss on Wednesday shaped a tie with two-time champion Lenovo Tenerife on top of Group K of the Round of 16. Both championship contenders sit at 3-1 with two fixtures left in the double-legged round-robin schedule and a two-game advantage over Pinar Karsiyaka and Peristeri bwin.
Louisiana Tech product Speedy Smith talked to Eurohoops about the Gameday 4 contest in Santiago Martin. He expressed his disappointment with the referees, Martins Kozlovskis, Paulo Marques, and Gatis Salins.
“The game had a lot of ups and downs. They played really well, and hats off to them. There were a lot of touching fouls called, and we almost couldn’t touch them. We have the MVP on our team (Levi Randolph) and he was getting fouled the whole game,” he said.
The team coached by Ilias Kantzouris came back from a 16-point deficit but fell narrowly short of a win in the Canary Islands and improving to 4-0 in the four-team group. The experienced point guard, a veteran of six campaigns in various European countries and navigating his fourth season in the BCL, logged 12 points and seven assists against Tenerife.
“I’m not here to cry about it because that wasn’t the deciding factor of the game, and I’m not saying the refs made bad calls, but if you call something on one side, you should call the same on the other side. When you have the MVP and go to the line just 3 or 4 times, it doesn’t feel right to me. We just want to play a fair game,” added Smith, “We did not lose because of the refs.”
Teammate Levi Randolph, a leading candidate for the season MVP award, ended up with 20 points behind 7/15 field goals and 4/4 from the charity stripe.
“As a team, our second half is something we need to show more further down the road,” Smith told Eurohoops, “This game can help us build for the rest of the season.”
“I really appreciate our fans who went on a journey and came all the way from Israel to support us,” he concluded thanking supporters for making the long trip to Tenerife.
After visiting Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv in Round 20 of Israel’s Ligat Winner Regular Season on Sunday, Hapoel Jerusalem switches to Szombathely for the next continental home game. Taking on Peristeri bwin, a potential win would guarantee a spot in the Quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Photo Credit: Basketball Champions League