The Spanish side made the most of superior rebounding as it held on in a frantic finale
Dominating the boards helped Gran Canaria squeeze past Hapoel

Dreamland Gran Canaria kept alive its dream of winning the BKT EuroCup for the second time by advancing to the best-of-three semifinal series thanks to a gritty 89-92 win over Hapoel Yahav Bank Jerusalem.
Gran Canaria ground out the win on the back of its muscle in the paint, having won the battle of the boards 33-21 and crucially collecting 11 offensive rebounds to Hapoel’s 4.
Big man Mike Tobey had a field day in the second half as he racked up 14 points and 8 boards, complementing Caleb Homesley who led the Gran Canaria charge with 21 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
Homesley was only 1 of 7 from downtown but what a vital three-pointer it turned out to be, as it came in a nail-biting finish to stretch Gran Canaria’s lead to 79-84 when Hapoel was on the verge of turning the game on its head, having trailed by 12 points.
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It was a second successive tight postseason win for Gran Canaria after the Spanish side edged out Umana Reyer Venice 84-80 in the eighthfinals and next up is a mouth-watering clash with Bahcesehir College Istanbul, which rallied from a massive deficit to beat Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 85-81 in Tuesday’s other quarterfinal.
Homesley made it clear that it took a monumental effort for Gran Canaria to overcome battling Hapoel, which shot a superb 11 of 22 from deep but the Israeli side was undone in the paint, conceding a flurry of second-chance points.
“We really wanted this win and we really put everything we had on the line,” Homesley said in his postgame comments. “We talked about it, we knew this was the only game and we did a good job executing our game plan.
“We came together at halftime and talked about the adjustments we needed to make. Bahcesehir are a good team, they beat us once and we beat them once so it’s going to be tough because we’re on the road first. If we put in the effort and the energy, it’ll be good.”
Coach Jaka Lakovic, who was in charge in 2023 when Gran Canaria ripped through the regular season with a 15-3 record and went on to beat Turk Telkom Ankara 71-67 in a fiercely competitive championship game, acknowledged that getting past Bahcesehir would be a stern test of his team’s credentials.
Lakovic also praised Hapoel’s valiant late effort to overturn a 12-point deficit which fell just short as Gran Canaria was ice cold from the foul line in the dying minutes.
“We broke the game open late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, but Hapoel fought back like they always do,” the Slovenian tactician said. “We were focused enough to make some huge three-pointers in the end and got some important stops on defense.
“Bahcesehir is a very strong team, talented and experienced. They invested a lot of money to play this season with big expectations but we’ll be ready for the semifinal series.”