Yellow-and-blue tops Dubai in OT, Hapoel Tel Aviv loses to Baskonia

Sorkin all chipped in with huge baskets to take the key Euroleague victory.

With the win, Oded Katash’s squad improved to 17-16 and is over .500 for the first time this season as it sits in 11th place and one spot out of the Play-In.

Katash spoke about the win.

“We didn’t play the right way, and I am surprised we scored more than 100 points, but we found a way to win it.”

The loss dropped Hapoel down to fifth place with a record of 20-13, with five games remaining in the regular season.

Elijah Bryant paced the Reds in the first quarter to give Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad a slim 31-28 lead, but the scoring continued into the second quarter as Trent Forrest helped the hosts to a 67-64 advantage at halftime.

From there, Baskonia, which was playing the game behind closed doors due to the Spanish government’s security concerns, kept scoring at will as seven of Paolo Galbiati’s players scored in double digits to take the victory.

Bryant scored 26 points, Dan Oturu added 21 points, and Antonio Blakeney scored 19 points for Hapoel in the loss, while Forrest scored 22 points, Mamadi Diakite put in 15 points, and Kobi Simmons scored 14 points in the win.

“Giving up 118 points is a terrible result. We didn’t convince our players to play much better defense, play aggressively, use the fouls more, and be intelligent to stop them from making plays. Baskonia deserved the win.”