A.J. Slaughter hit a three-pointer with 3.5 seconds left on the clock to lift Gran Canaria to a thrilling 85-83 win over visiting Hapoel Tel Aviv on Wednesday night. Gran Canaria trailed 73-81 with less than 5 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but found a way to rally and then saw Slaughter hit a step-back triple, the team's 16th three-pointer of the night, to win it and improve Gran Canaria to 4-1, tied for the best record in Group A. Hapoel dropped to 3-2 in its first 7DAYS EuroCup season.
Slaughter's game winner lifts Gran Canaria over Hapoel

John Shurna was Gran Canaria's top scorer with 18 points and Damien Inglis had 14 points plus 7 rebounds. Slaughter finished with 12 points and Ferran Bassas and Vitor Benite each netted 10 in victory. Xavier Munford shined for Hapoel with 24 points. Jordan McRae had 17, J'Covan Brown netted 15 and Jaylen Hoard finished with 10 in a losing effort.
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Gran Canaria stormed out of the gate with Shurna netting the first 7 points before Salvo's triple made it 14-4. Jordan McRae made a triple and sparked a 4-18 spurt, with Munford in the main role, scoring 13 points to put Hapoel up 23-24. But Ferran Bassas beat the buzzer to end the first quarter and then opened the second with a three-pointer. More threes, one from Slaughter and back-to-back from Shurna made it 40-27. McRae snapped the hosts' run, but Slaughter, Benite and Shurna went back-to-back-to-back within 65 seconds for a 51-34 lead. However, Hapoel closed the first half with a 1-9 run to make it 52-45.
The visitors scored the first 10 points of the third quarter with Munford and McRae each hitting 1 triple to put Hapoel in front. Gran Canaria responded with more threes, 1 each from Bassas and Benite, and took a 63-60 lead into the fourth quarter. Hapoel erased the deficit with close-range baskets from JP Tokoto and Jaylen Hoard before Brown strung together 9 points, including a pair of triples during a 1-11 run to put Hapoel up 73-81. But Gran Canaria started making defensive stops, while Inglis and Shurna kept the hosts' hopes alive. Inglis scored 6 points to get the hosts within 82-83 with 45 seconds to go. After another defensive stand, the ball went to Slaughter who nailed a game-winning step-back triple.