The Serbian team won against the odds on the back of some heroic individual performances
Valiant Partizan storms back to overturn 27-point deficit, beat Hapoel in OT
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Regular Season
Round 24 of 38
Regular Season
Partizan Mozzart Bet BelgradePAR
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Hapoel IBI Tel AvivHTA
Overview
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Partizan Mozzart Bet Belgrade fans will be forgiven for arriving late into Munich’s beer halls on Friday night after a dramatic finale at the city’s BMW Park, where the Serbian team enjoyed a memorable 104-101 overtime win against Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv.
Partizan improved to 8-16 while Hapoel dropped to 16-7, with the Israeli side staying top of the EuroLeague standings by the skin of its teeth, level with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and ahead of Spanish duo Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, who are both on 16-8.
Against all odds, Partizan wiped out a 37-64 third-quarter deficit, the joint second-biggest comeback in the competition’s history. Joan Penarroya's men roared back in the second half and forced the additional five minutes thanks to a monster block from big man Bruno Fernando, one of the team’s many heroes on an epic night.
With the clock ticking, Fernando leapt sky-high to swat away a Chris Jones layup and keep the score tied, 88-88, heading into overtime. In the extra session, Sterling Brown overcame a recent slump to sink 8 of his 13 points as Partizan held its nerve in a dramatic finish.
Playing as hosts in Munich as the team’s favorite Belgrade Arena venue is busy hosting the men’s European Water Polo Championship, Partizan ground out its second successive win in the Bavarian city in two days, after beating FC Bayern Munich 63-67 on Wednesday.
The Serbian fans, a mixture of expats and die-hard ultras who made the trip from Serbia, stayed in Munich for an extra couple of days and witnessed one of the most awe-inspiring fightbacks in the history of their club, which is going through a rough patch marked by seven straight losses prior to beating Bayern.
For two and a half quarters Partizan looked second best against rampant Hapoel, whose big men Dan Oturu and Johnathan Motley bossed the paint while Vasilije Micic and Chris Jones toyed with their markers in the backcourt, engineering a seemingly unassailable 27-point lead.
However, role player Arijan Lakic came off the bench – out of nowhere, in fact – to inspire a stunning comeback as he registered his EuroLeague career highs of 15 points, 8 rebounds and a PIR of 24. Captain Vanja Marinkovic, who suffered what looked like a hamstring injury late in regulation, followed in his footsteps with 12 points, and Fernando racked up 14 to go with 7 boards, all of them complementing the effort of livewire guard Cam Payne, who sank a team-high 19 points.
The evening plaudits duly went to Lakic, though, whose energy and fighting spirit catapulted Partizan from a lethargic first-half performance that saw Hapoel run riot to take a 35-56 lead at the interval.
“We fought until the end as this is the kind of belief we have to bring on to the court, the bench and the locker room every game,” Lakic said in his postgame comments. “We have to continue like this, especially on defense as second half defense won us the game. I am so grateful for having these fans with us, as they cheer us on even when we are losing by 20 or 30. We were at home in Munich today but I can’t wait to go back to the Arena and play in front of 20,000 people.”
The ferocity and guile of Partizan’s spirit was also personified by Fernando, who let out a primal scream when he vanquished Jones with 0.1 seconds left on the clock, his block originally ruled as goaltending before the decision was changed after an official review. Partizan head coach Joan Penarroya was then ejected early in overtime for a second technical foul, but his absence only seemed to galvanize Partizan in carving out a 97-92 advantage. The Serbian side then stayed focused and held on in the wake of one last push by Hapoel.
“Emotions were high because there was a lot at stake for us,” Fernando said. “Our fans found a way to come here and support us in a home away from home, while we were able to find some energy and some juice and put up a fight in the second half.
“It’s been a rough few weeks for us, but we had to find a way to smile and be happy, to come here and put a smile on people’s faces by playing basketball. It’s bigger than us, it’s the whole country of Serbia, and we just need to stay patient when things are not going so well for us.”
Hapoel head coach Dimitris Itoudis will no doubt see the outcome as a missed opportunity to keep some distance from the chasing pack. Oturu led the Israeli side on 24 points, Micic scored 19 and Jones chipped in with 16, while Antonio Blakeney and Motley sank 13 and 11, respectively. However, the rest of the crew added preciously little to the effort as Hapoel lost the battle of the boards 37-32 and committed 17 turnovers, while allowing Partizan to record 23 assists and 13 steals.
“Congratulations to Partizan, they kept believing even when we were up by 25 or so,” Itoudis said. “We made a lot of mistakes on the rotation, we over-helped when we shouldn’t have done and we failed to stick to the plan of not giving them too many open threes. It leaves a bitter taste because we were playing a pretty good game for about 27 minutes, but a lot of credit goes to Partizan. It wasn’t enough as you’ve got to stay consistent for 40 minutes. We have no right to crack because this is what the EuroLeague is like.”
