He didn’t play the second quarter due to breathing problems but became crucial in the second half.
J’Covan Brown fought off scare, boosted Hapoel past Besiktas
Članak
3 Min čitanja
Hapoel Schlomo Tel Aviv experienced a tough game against the visiting Besiktas Emlakjet Istanbul in Round 9 of the BKT EuroCup. In a contest that saw several lead changes and an advantage no greater than 6 points for either side, the J’Covan Brown-led Hapoel managed to escape from Aleksandar Nikolic Hall with an 81-75 victory that allows it to stay close to the top in Group A.
Hapoel found a hero in Brown, who finished as the game’s top scorer with 19 points, while he also had 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 8 fouls drown for a PIR of 28. The 33-year-old did all this in 29:44 minutes on the floor, which is a surprise given that he spent the entire second quarter on the bench due to breathing problems.
J’Covan Brown had a scare
Brown was named in Hapoel’s starting five and provided 6 points until he had to leave the court with 16 seconds to go in the first period. The Hapoel point guard had to be attended by the medical staff at that point, as he showed difficulties with his breathing for a while. That prevented him from playing a single minute in the remainder of the first half, which ended with a 41-41 tie.
“I’m okay,” Brown stated after the game. “Maybe I had one or two many Red Bulls and sugar pills at one time, but I’m feeling okay. Not 100%, but I’m feeling okay.”
A dominant second half
Brown ended up recovering quickly and stayed on the floor for the entire second half, before playing a key role for his team in crunch time. He came up big down the stretch, too, after Derek Needham missed a three that could have sent the game in the opposite direction. After grabbing the defensive board, he drew a foul and sunk a tough off-the-dribble deep two that established a 78-75 advantage with 25 seconds left.
On the next possession, Brown repeated his feat by securing the defensive rebound following a miss by Jonah Matthews. This time, though, he drew an unsportsmanlike foul that he turned into 2 free throws, which put the outcome beyond doubt.
“This is my job: to lead the guys night in, night out,” Brown explained. “We know that we had to get a big win. That was our talk the whole week of practice. Just being aggressive… we knew that they were going to come out and be aggressive.
“But we just had to play our basketball. I give credit to them, because they are one hell of a tough team and we just took on the challenge to play together, fight together and give ourselves a better chance at the end of the game.”