Hapoel’s third-quarter run made all the difference

Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv led by as many as 29 points before celebrating an 83-100 road win at Promitheas Patras on Tuesday night. The visitors dominated the second half after falling behind early and leading by just 5 at the break.
Hapoel scored the first 18 points of the second half to take control of the game. It amassed 36 points in the third quarter after totaling 37 in the entire first half. What made the difference was taking care of the ball, as Hapoel head coach Danny Franco proclaimed after the game.
"We turned over the ball only once in the third quarter. We had 8 turnovers in the first half; that gave Promitheas a lot of easy points," said Franco.
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Both teams had 12 turnovers for the game, but Hapoel accompanied its turnovers with 31 assists, which was nearly double the Promitheas total (17). With starting point guard J’Covan Brown out after suffering a concussion last week, Hapoel needed players to step up in the passing game and they did. Jordan McRae dished a career-best 8 turnovers, Bar Timor delivered 6 and Xavier Munford and J.P. Tokoto had 4 each. Every player spare teenager Eyal Harel, who came on for the final 2:42, had at least 1 assist.
The visitors not only took better care of the ball, but they comminated the glass, too. Hapoel outrebounded Promitheas 24-40 with nine players grabbing at least 1 rebound. Chinanu Onuaku led the way with 8 rebounds, Idan Zalmanson had 6 and Tokoto and Jaylen Hoard added 5 each.
The impressive performance on the road moved Hapoel into the top half of the Group B standings and was another display of the talent and potential that Coach Franco’s team believes could take it far this season.