Hapoel demolishes Gran Canaria 92-70

Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv extended its winning streak to seven games by defeating visiting Group B leader Gran Canaria 92-70 at Shlomo Group Arena on Wednesday night. The hosts dominated from the very beginning, amassing a 26-7 lead in the first 9 minutes that the visitors could never threaten. Hapoel improved to 10-4 to get closer to Gran Canaria’s 11-3 and also won the head-to-head tiebreaker between them.

Jordan McRae led all scorers with 25 points, to which he added 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals for a PIR of 31. Xavier Munford followed with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, J’Covan Brown tallied a double-double of 11 points and 14 assist and Chinanu Oniaku neared another of his own with 15 points and 9 boards. John Shurna scored 16 points and Aleksander Balcerowski added 12 for the losing team.

Game News

The hosts managed to slow down Gran Canaria’s offense in the early going, allowing just 2 points in the first 4 minutes to build a 11-2 edge that forced a first timeout by the visitors. The stoppage didn’t work for Gran Canaria, though, as Brown joined Onuaku and McRae to raise the difference to 20-4 soon after. Bar Timor made it 26-7 with a couple of free throws, but a 0-5 run by the visitors closed the first period with a score of 26-14. 

The visitors found some relief from behind the arc and trimmed the deficit to 31-21 as Hapoel returned its starting backcourt to the floor to try to stop the rally. With Brown and McRae running the show in offense, Hapoel soon regained a comfortable margin, 43-26, as Gran Canaria could only score from the free-throw line. 5 points in a row by Shurna avoided a more painful punishment for the visitors at halftime, which the score 47-31.

Game Videos

Things didn’t improve much for Gran Canaria after the break. It needed more than 4 minutes to score, allowing the hosts to escape to 55-31. The visitors tried to cut the deficit with rotations and looking for some scoring from the three-point line, but nothing seemed to work as planned and Hapoel kept increasing the difference boosted by McRae, to get to 30-point margin, 69-39, late in the third period. Shurna and Ferran Bassas came to the rescue and improved Gran Canaria’s offensive performance, but it was just merbromin for a seriously wounded team that trailed 70-47 entering the last stanza.

Munford led the offense for Hapoel early in the final period to cancel Miquel Salvo’s effort on the other side. A fastbreak layup by the former established a 79-54 difference with 7 minutes remaining. Salvo kept fueling Gran Canaria and helped his team reduce the margin to 81-63 midway through the fourth quarter. The comeback attempt didn’t go further, though, as Onuaku showed up again on offense and the visitors decided to give some minutes to bench players like David Mutaf and Ruben Lopez, waiving the white flag with 4 minutes to go.

Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv v Gran Canaria (2023-02-08T18:00:00.000Z)

Danny Franco, Hapoel: 'I take off my hat to the guys'

### Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv head coach Danny Franco:

"I would keep repeating \[it was the best game of the season so far\] in the future. It was a huge effort from all of our guys, outstanding game, all of them. Three great defensive quarters, I take off my hat to the guys, they did an unbelievable job, and to all of our fans, they are all coming to all of our games, gym sold out, amazing atmosphere. We are looking at this group one game at a time, we are not looking at one position or another. We want to play well, keep on proceeding, do a good job, win games, and as long as you play good basketball, then you will find yourself at the highest position you can reach."

### Gran Canaria head coach Jaka Lakovic:

"First of all, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the people of Turkiye and Syria for the great tragedy that happened a couple of days ago. I hope they can save as many people as possible and they can build up the life again. Second, congratulations to Hapoel for a deserved win. They outrebounded us, they outplayed us, outran us, so the sum-up is easy; from minute zero they were a better team, so congratulations. We will go on. I think we didn’t come to the game with the same sense of urgency and motivation that Hapoel did. This was one of the reasons, but again, I don’t want to take any credit off Hapoel when talking about us, about what we didn’t bring or what we didn’t do good, because there were basic things that we didn’t do good. We didn’t run back, we didn’t rebound and, in the end, the third thing was so obvious: we didn’t defend one-on one, but all credit goes to Hapoel for a great game."

### Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv forward Jordan McRae:

"It’s a huge victory for us. We knew this team was very good team, very well coached. They missed a lot of shots from three, but we did a great job tonight. It wasn’t easy at all. I think the team did a great job. We played hard at both ends of the court."

Promitheas pounds Slask, 90-66

Promitheas Patras dug itself out of an early hole before dominating the second half to defeat Slask Wroclaw 90-66 on Wednesday night at Dimitris Tofalos Arena. After falling behind by 16 in the first quarter, the hosts fought back to lead by 2 at halftime and then outclassed the visitors 47-25 in the second half. The winners improved to 9-5 and a share of fourth place in the standings, while Slask's fading playoff hopes suffered another blow as it fell to 1-13.

Joe Thomasson scored all of his 20 points in the first half to lead Promitheas. Nemanja Dangubic added 15 points, Trevis Simpson 14 and George Conditt tallied 13 points and 7 rebounds. Aleksander Dziewa paced Slask with 19 points and Lukasz Kolenda and Szymon Tomczak each scored 10. Tomczak also led Slask with 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

Jakub Niziol scored for Slask on the game’s opening possession only to see Promitheas respond with the next 7 points. Slask fought back to regain the lead with a 0-19 run in which Kolenda scored 9 as the visitors went ahead 9-25. Thomasson finally revived the stalled Promitheas attack with a three-point play and a three-pointer to get the home side within 18-27 after 10 minutes.

Promitheas kept the visitors scoreless for the first 3 and a half minutes of the second quarter while climbing within 25-27. Thomasson completed the comeback with a triple that made it 31-29 and remained red hot. Nonetheless, Slask kept it close and with a 0-8 run in which Dziewa and Tomczak scored all the points, went ahead 39-41. Dangubic put Promitheas up 43-41 at the half.

Conditt scored 7 points in a 9-2 run as Promitheas surged to a 52-44 cushion. His next dunk gave the hosts a double-digit lead and Slask was unable to get much closer. Dustin Hogue’s free throw made it 67-54 through three quarters.

Slask held Promitheas scoreless for nearly 3 minutes at the onset of the fourth quarter, but could only score 5 points in that span. Once the hosts regrouped, Dangubic led a 10-0 run for a 77-59 lead to remove all doubt. Simpson heated up late and the margin peaked at 87-61 in the game’s penultimate minute.

Promitheas Patras v Slask Wroclaw (2023-02-08T17:30:00.000Z)

Prometey Slobozhanske came up with a rare hot-shooting night from the outside in racing past Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 94-68 thanks in large part to DJ Stephens.

 Stephens leads Prometey three-point attack 

Prometey Slobozhanske came up with a rare hot-shooting night from the outside in racing past Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana 94-68 thanks in large part to DJ Stephens.

The Prometey forward Stephens drained 6 of 9 triples in scoring a game-high 28 points. The American came into the game shooting just 33.3% from long range although he had raised his efficiency while hitting 7 of 15 triples in his previous two games.

Prometey as a team has struggled from the outside this season. Despite having the second-best offense with 87.0 points per game, the Ukrainian side had made just 30.6% of its three-point attempts, ranking 18th in the EuroCup. But Prometey connected on 13 of 31 three-pointers for 41.9% against Cedevita.

Prometey's long-range prowess may also have been a result of the Cedevita defense, which came into the contest ranked last in PIR (102.6), opponents scoring (89.8) and turnovers forced (11.8), as well 19th in opponents’ three-point shooting (39.2%).

Stephens leads Prometey three-point attack

Prometey Slobozhanske v Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana (2023-02-08T17:00:00.000Z)

Joe Thomasson, Promitheas: 'I love our energy right now'

### Promitheas Patras head coach Ioannis Christopoulos:  

"\[This win\] is very important. It will help us climb up  as much as we can. Every game is a different game. We are looking forward to the next one…"

 

### Slask Wroclaw head coach Andrej Urlep:

"We had problems.  We have a short rotation. We were not able to keep the pace. We committed too many bad turnovers and that’s why we lost."

 

### Promitheas Patras guard Joe Thomasson:

"Defense is what wins championships. You can score all the points you want, but if you can’t stop the other team, the opponent, then it’s gonna just be a high-scoring game. Anybody can win there… I am looking forward to the next game. Honestly, I am just trying to win as much as I can in the EuroCup, show how valuable I can be to myself first and my team. Continue to help lead this team to as many victories as I can. But I feel pretty good. Two months ago we weren’t a serious basketball team. No one was talking about us. People didn’t believe. Now we’re stringing some wins together. Now, mind you, we have a lot of work to do. But I love our energy right now, the comradery in the locker room. We are coming together from our coaches down to the last player on the bench, we’re finally believing in something and that’s what matters. "

 

 Prometey races past Cedevita for 7th straight win

Prometey Slobozhanske remained atop Group A with a comfortable 94-68 home win over Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana. The Ukrainian side took over the game in the third quarter to extend its winning streak to seven games for a 10-4 record. 

DJ Stephens paced the winners with 28 points including 6 three-pointers. Caleb Agada chipped in 16 points and Issuf Sanon added 11. Cedevita’s chances of reaching the playoffs are slowly fading away with a fourth loss in the last five games for a 3-11 record. Alen Omic scored 16 points and Yogi Ferrell tallied 10 points in the defeat. 

Both teams went inside earkt to their big man. Cedevita’s Ondrej Balvin and Omic both scored 6 points as the score went back and forth with 8 lead changes up to an 18-19 Cedevita lead. The guests pushed ahead 20-24 for their second four-point lead but Prometey led 25-24 after 10 minutes. Prometey scored the first 9 points of the second quarter – all from the free throw line – for a 35-24 cushion. Omic added 5 more points and Marko Jeremic’s triple cut the difference to 41-36. The deficit got as low as 44-40 but Prometey had an 8-2 finish until it lead 52-43 at halftime. 

 Stephens and Sanon hit three-pointers to start the second half and Prometey’s cushion grew to 58-43. Cedevita fought to get within 59-50 and Promotey punched back with 10 straight points for a 69-50 advantage. Stephens added 2 more triples and the lead was 78-58 after 30 minutes. Cedevita could not get closer than 16 points in the fourth quarter.

Prometey races past Cedevita for 7th straight win 

 Coach Canak, Lietkabelis: 'The best medicine' 

### 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys head coach Nenad Canak:

"Of course, I am happy about that win. It is a very important win for us. As you know, we are really struggling in our national championship and for us, a victory is always the best medicine. I am very happy because we didn't give up at minus-11. Things were not going how we want but guys showed character and I think we deserved that win. At this moment, we don't know the situation with \[Gediminas\] Orelik but \[Jamel Morris\] stepped up, \[Paulius\] Murauskas played well his minutes. Great win for us."

### Umana Reyer Venice head coach Gianluca Tucci:

"We were unlucky because details made this game. The game is there, so everybody can watch how many triples touched the rim twice or three times before going in and out. It is important to be sure that we have 100% of our team spirit, our way to approach a new course. It is clear that we also need to be luckier, but I am happy for our game. Everybody gave 100% of effort."

### 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys guard Jamel Morris:

"I think everybody had a good effort today. I think we fought hard for four quarters. We didn't give up, everybody played together. I thought we got stops when we needed to get stops. We made some adjustments in the second half, they helped us, and of course, we had to make shots, but I am just glad that everybody, from the first guy to the last guy, came in and contributed. Everybody did well and did their job. That's a good team to beat and we are happy for it. We had a good team meeting after our last game and just kind of looked at ourselves in the eyes and had a good soul searching-type meeting. Slowly but surely, everybody is just buying in, everybody is playing together and fighting hard for each other, not worrying about outside things that we can't control. We are just controlling everything amongst ourselves, and I think we took a step forwards today."

Coach Canak, Lietkabelis: 'The best medicine'

7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys v Umana Reyer Venice (2023-02-08T17:00:00.000Z)

 Morris's three wins it for Lietkabelis, 87-84! 

In a thriller that went down to the final shot, 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys grabbed its third consecutive win in Group A by topping Umana Reyer Venice 87-84 at Kalnapilio Arena in Round 14 on Wednesday. Lietkabelis improved to 7-7 in the standings, the same as Reyer, which won their first game 74-71 in Round 5. Reyer, despite it's fourth consecutive loss, is currently ahead of Lietkabelis in the standings due to a higher group point differential in its favor. 

Jamel Morris led the winners with 28 points on 6-for-7 three-point shooting, firing in his sixth and final one from the EuroCup logo with 1.3 seconds remaining. Gyrogy Goloman added 14 points and Nikola Popovic 13 for Lietkabelis. Mitchell Watt led Reyer with 19 points, making 8 of 11 two-pointers. Jayson Granger added 15 points, Derek Willis 14 and Jordan Parks 11.

Willis stepped up early with consecutive dunks, giving Reyer a 2-8 lead. Morris struck three times from downtown, getting help from Stefan Peno to put Lietkabelis in charge, 15-12. Parks stepped up for the guests and Granger restored a 27-28 Reyer lead after 10 minutes. Goloman scored twice in the paint in a 9-0 run that Murauskas capped with a three-pointer, making Reyer call timeout at 36-28. Jeff Brooks fueled a 0-10 run highlighted by Watt's put-back slam. Parks and Willis kept Reyer ahead, 43-46, at halftime.

Mike Bramos buried a three-pointer, Willis and Watt each hit a jumper and Granger's fastbreak layup made it a double-digit game, 47-57, for Reyer. Morris and Kristian Kullamae tried to change things for Lietkabelis but Granger and Marco Spissu each answered from downtown for a 60-67 score. Goloman and Murauskas kept Lietkabelis within 64-67 after 30 minutes. Willis and Spissu gave Reyer fresh air at 69-76 with over 7 minutes left. Goloman and Popovic rescued the hosts and Morris's driving layup tied it, 80-80, with over 3 minutes remaining. Morris completed Lietkabelis's comeback, 84-83, with 1:19 left. Watt split free throws before Morris delivered from way downtown and Bramos missed a three-point shot at the buzzer.

Morris's three wins it for Lietkabelis, 87-84!

Umana Reyer Venice announced on Wednesday that it appointed former 7DAYS EuroCup champion Neven Spahija to be its new head coach. He replaces Walter De Raffaele, who was relieved of his duties earlier in the week after spending 13 years at the club. Gianluca Tucci will serve as Reyer's head coach for Wednesday's Round 14 game on the road against 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys.

Reyer appoints Neven Spahija as new head coach

Umana Reyer Venice announced on Wednesday that it appointed former 7DAYS EuroCup champion Neven Spahija to be its new head coach. He replaces Walter De Raffaele, who [was relieved of his duties earlier in the week](https://www.euroleaguebasketball.net/eurocup/news/reyer-parts-ways-with-head-coach-walter-de-raffaele/) after spending 13 years at the club. Gianluca Tucci will serve as Reyer's head coach for Wednesday's Round 14 game on the road against 7Bet-Lietkabelis Panevezys.

Spahija, 60, returns to the EuroCup for the first time in almost a decade after leading Cibona Zagreb of his native Croatia for the first five games of the 2013-14 season. Spahija previously helped Valencia Basket win the EuroCup in 2010, and he also reached the competition's final with the Slovenian side Krka Novo Mesto in 2003. He has a 35-17 (67.3%) career record in the competition and now takes over Reyer, a team sitting in fifth place in Group A with a 7-6 record.

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="it" dir="ltr">✍️🇭🇷 Neven Spahija è il nuovo head coach dell’Umana Reyer maschile 👉 <a href="https://t.co/zLZfL3MObA">https://t.co/zLZfL3MObA</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reyer150?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Reyer150</a> <a href="https://t.co/VLSIyww6fG">pic.twitter.com/VLSIyww6fG</a></p>&mdash; Reyer Venezia (@REYER1872) <a href="https://twitter.com/REYER1872/status/1623295568603750401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Spahija last coached in the 2021-22 season with Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz, which he led to a ninth-place finish in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and the semifinals in the Spanish League. That was his second stint with the Spanish club, which he also guided to the 2008 EuroLeague Final Four. Spahija has an 89-93 (48.9%) record across 10 EuroLeague seasons during his career, having started with Elemes Sibenik, Zrinjevac Zagreb and Gradine Pula in Croatia. He also coached Olimpija Ljubljana of Slovenia, Avtodor Saratov of Russia, Euro Roseto of Italy, Lietuvos Rytas Vilnius of Lithuania, Fenerbahce Istanbul of Turkey, Maccabi Playtika Tel Aviv of Israel and Shanghai Sharks of China, as well as spending time as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks and the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA.

He has won domestic league titles in Spain (Baskonia 2008), Croatia (Cibona 2000, 2001), Slovenia (Krka 2003), Lithuania (Rytas 2006), Israel (Maccabi 2007, 2018) and Turkey (Fenerbahce 2011). Spahija also won Croatian Cups with Cibona in 2000 and 2001, the Turkish Cup with Fenerbahce in 2011 and the Baltic League with Rytas in 2006. He has coached the Croatian national team, too.