Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv dominated Promitheas Patras in the paint early and often en route to a 108-69 victory on Tuesday night at Shlomo Group Arena in the northern side of Tel Aviv. The victory came roughly an hour after another Tel Aviv team finished its own record-breaking performance in the southern part of the city in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague.
Both Hapoel and its crosstown rival Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv started red-hot and set halftime records for points scored. While Maccabi went for 62 halftime points and set a EuroLeague record with 38 assists in a 111-80 thrashing of Virtus Segafredo Bologna, Hapoel had 59 first-half points and did its most impressive work in the paint.
Coach Danny Franco’s men outrebounded Promitheas 44-17. Even more impressive is that Hapoel cashed in on nearly all of its offensive rebounds. The team collected 11 of its misses and scored 24 second-chance points. In contrast, Promitheas was limited to 4 offensive rebounds and 2 second-chance points.
In the first half alone, Hapoel shot 23 for 29 (79.3%) on two-pointers and dished 16 assists alongside 3 turnovers. The pace slowed a little in the second half, but Hapoel still shot 14 for 18 (77.8%) on twos and dished 14 assists, though it committed 11 second-half turnovers. Its 37 two-pointers were the most by any team in the EuroCup this season.
"We knew it would be a physical game and we prepared ourselves mentally for their aggressiveness. We didn’t let it affect us. We controlled the rebounds. This was supposed to be a difficult and complicated game," Coach Franco said.