The visiting team kept rolling on with a masterclass performance and an emphatic victory
Hapoel shows it means business with statement win at Milan
Spielbericht
3 Lesezeit
Regular Season
Round 12 of 38
Regular Season
EA7 Emporio Armani MilanEA7
83105
Hapoel IBI Tel AvivHTA
Overview
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Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv is in seventh heaven and proudly sitting at the top of the EuroLeague with a 9-3 record after an 83-105 road drubbing of EA7 Emporio Armani Milan on Thursday, with the Israeli side fast becoming the envy of the competition with its high-tempo game.
The performance against Milan, which dropped to 6-6, left nothing to be desired as Hapoel demonstrated entertaining and high-scoring basketball with its pack leaders again coming to the fore in a ruthless destruction of the hosts, who were only able to cope in the first quarter.
From there on, it was a lop-sided contest and Hapoel’s efficiency will leave few teams fancying their chances against a well-oiled machine firing on all cylinders in its debut EuroLeague season.
Coach Dimitris Itoudis seem to have ticked all the boxes in assembling a talent-packed outfit, with Dan Oturu and Antonio Blakeney pacing Hapoel on 20 points each at Unipol Forum, the latter also grabbing 7 rebounds. Elijah Bryant added 18 points and big man Johnathan Motley chipped in with 17, while Vasilije Micic rounded up a smooth team effort with 13.
“Congratulations to my team. We knew we had to change our mindset defensively in the third quarter and we did it immediately,” Itoudis said in his postgame comments. “It was a team effort as we made some great stops and whoever came off the bench or in the starting lineup was giving something. Basketball requires a plan at both ends and you can’t disconnect one from the other.”
Oturu toyed with his markers on offense while he also constituted a wall in his own paint, as Milan’s was ground to a screeching halt after a decent first half with the Italian side only trailing 45-49 at the interval. A 0-12 Hapoel run early in the third quarter was a sign of things to come and the visitors never looked back, forcing droves of home fans to leave the gym in a hurry well before the final buzzer.
“In the third quarter, we used our defense to fuel other parts of our game,” said Oturu. “Great second half team effort and I’m just happy we won the game. I am here to go out and compete and help my team win. We came here on a four-game winning streak and needed to bring our best performance, so we’ll just try to rack up the wins as we go along.”
Hapoel shot a sound 10-of-22 from downtown and a staggering 31-of-43 from inside, having dished out 23 team assists to steamroll Milan and Bryant also played a key role as the visiting team’s back court overwhelmed their opponents.
“We had 8 turnovers in the first half so we limited those and as they packed the paint, we were able to make better decisions and get the win,” Bryant said. “If you look down the league, teams that get the most rebounds usually win and I’m pretty sure that we won the rebounding battle tonight. We have a lot of talent on our team, tonight it was Dan (Oturu) who did the job for us, but we’ve got plenty of players who can play both offense and defense.”
Hapoel duly won the battle of the boards 37-27, having also limited Milan to hitting a mere 5-of-24 from downtown thanks to aggressive pressure on the perimeter, as open looks were few and far between for the home team.
