It was going to require something special for the visitors to stop the streaking hosts, and they found it.
To ace crucial test, London took pages from Hapoel's book



London Lions faced a formidable task visiting Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv in snowy Belgrade on Tuesday.
Hapoel arrived with a seven-game winning streak and record-threatening averages of 23.6 assists and 118.0 PIR per game.
It became clear quickly, however, that London's motivation to reach the BKT EuroCup Playoffs with a victory would be just as strong as Hapoel's momentum until then. And so it proved as London catapulted out of the gate after tipoff and then faced down every Hapoel comeback attempt to prevail in a 96-100 shootout.
Not only did London guarantee itself a playoff spot with its 10-4 record, it stayed on the heels of Hapoel (11-3) for second place, which comes with a direct pass to the quarterfinals and home-court advantage at that stage. They will likely battle for that prize until the end of the regular season now.
In putting itself in position to do even more than make the playoffs, the Lions stole a page or two from Hapoel's book. Their season high of 29 assists included six players reaching at least 3 assists, something so rare that it has only been bettered twice in EuroCup history.
Tarik Phillip led the parade of passers with 7 dimes, while Donte Grantham added 5, Matthew Morgan and Conor Morgan 4 each, and Gabe Olaseni and Luke Nelson 3 each.
Not as rare, but almost, was Conor Morgan and Nelson hitting 5 and 4 three-pointers each. Only 20 teams in EuroCup history have seen more than two players make at least 4 triples in the same game. What's more 8 of their 9 fell in the first half.
It all added up to London winning in PIR by 119 to 105, which is saying something against a team that is on pace to shatter the single-season average PIR with still 117.1 per game.
Not a bad night's work on the road in snowy Belgrade for the boys from London.