ULEB Cup Hoops: Kazan crushes Hapoel Jerusalem

Kazan thrashed Jerusalem 98-45 in the ULEB Cup, avenging its 39 points defeat (107-68) at the Malha Arena less than two months ago.

By ALLON SINAI
Hapoel Jerusalem 248.88 (photo credit: Asaf Kliger [file])
Hapoel Jerusalem 248.88
(photo credit: Asaf Kliger [file])
Hapoel Jerusalem suffered one of Israeli basketball's all-timed most embarrassing defeats on Tuesday evening in Russia. Unics Kazan thrashed Jerusalem 98-45 in the ULEB Cup, avenging its 39 points defeat (107-68) at the Malha Arena less than two months ago. Hapoel scored no more than 14 points in any of the four quarters and was outscored by 20 (26-6) in the final period. The team scored just 31 percent from the field (17 of 55) and was out-rebounded 45 to 19. Darjus Lavrinovic led five Kazan players in double figures with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Marko Tusek (19 points, 8 rebounds), Sergei Chikalkin (18 points), Tariq Kirksay (12 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists) and Jerry Mccullough (10 points, 9 rebounds) had it all their own way against a Jerusalem team which had just one player in double figures. Guy Pnini scored 14 points for the visitors, with Erez Markovitch adding nine. Hapoel falls to 4-4 following the humbling defeat and could miss out on qualifying for the next stage if it fails to win its two remaining Group I games at Zadar next week and against Turow Zgorzelec at Malha. Kazan improved to 4-4 with its win, as did Zadar, which defeated Den Bosch 84-65 Tuesday night. Strasbourg was trying to become the fourth club in the group with a 4-4 mark on Tuesday night. They were playing after press time against first-place Turow Zgorzelec, with a 6-1 record. Only the top three teams in each six-team group move on to the next round, as well as the five best fourth-placed clubs among the nine groups. Kazan (4-4) took a stranglehold on the encounter with a 17-4 run (21-8) in the first quarter that was capped by a Mccullough three-pointer. The hosts' 12-point first period lead (26-14) continued to mushroom in the second quarter, with an 18-6 run giving the team a 24-point margin (44-20). Unics was by no means content with its 21-point halftime gap (46-25) and continued to pour salt on Hapoel's wounds, opening a 72-39 advantage with 10 minutes to play. Unsurprisingly, the final period of the game was no different from the first three and the hosts ended the night just 10 points shy of equaling the ULEB Cup's biggest-ever winning margin.