Defense and assists carried Hapoel past Reyer

Hapoel Vegan friendly Tel Aviv reached the 7DAYS EuroCup Quarterfinals with a resounding 90-80 home win over Umana Reyer Venice, on the back of aggressive defense in the first three quarters of the game garnished by selfless teamwork on offense.
The home team forced 19 turnovers from the visitors, who had fought back from a 77-55 deficit at the end of the third quarter and closed the gap to just 84-80 in the closing stages, but they ran fell short of turning the game on its head.
Hapoel also shared the ball unselfishly on the attack, as it racked up a total of 22 team assists, while six players posted double figures in scoring. The bench made a massive contribution and the second unit's effort was personified by Idan Zalmanson, who had 10 points and 5 rebounds in just 13 minutes on the court.
The overall performance drew praise from head coach Danny Franco, who can now look forward to a last-eight clash with Joventut Badalona and hope that his team will be able to reach the semifinals in their debut EuroCup season.
"I want to congratulate my players for a great night. We played a team with a lot of experienced guys and a great coach, we were never going to take anything for granted against them," Franco said in the post-game press conference.
"The fans gave us incredible energy and with so many players contributing, I am proud as a coach of how we reacted. We needed to be more focused to prevent the momentum that Venice got [in the latter stages], but I am happy we’re here and I hope we can keep dreaming."
Game Videos
Reyer made 12 of 36 three-point attempts and 14 of 21 from two-point range, with its head coach Neven Spahija criticizing the shot selection.
"We needed to play inside more because a serious team can’t afford to take 36 shots from three-point range and just 21 from two-point territory," he said. "Basketball is about balancing the inside and the outside game."