Hapoel Defeats Wroclaw!

After suffering three losses in its previous four games, including two straight in the EuroCup, Hapoel bounced back on Tuesday night with a dominant 86-69 "home" victory over Wroclaw in Belgrade, improving to 2-2 in the European competition.

The Reds from the capital found themselves trailing 11-3 early on, but from that point forward they took complete control of the game with a remarkable 35-8 run and never looked back, with the lead reaching as many as 26 points.

As usual, Jared Harper led Hapoel's impressive performance, but it was Yovel Zoosman and Roi Huber who sparked the big run, each knocking down back-to-back three-pointers in the first and second quarters respectively. Yonatan Alon's team didn't exactly light it up from beyond the arc, making eight of 25 attempts (32%), but still looked much better than its opponent, which converted just two of nine shots from three-point range.

The Polish side was led by Jakub Niziol and Kadre Gray with 15 points each, although much of their scoring came from the free-throw line. Gray made 11 of his 14 free throws but finished just 2-of-8 from the field.

After returning to winning ways in Europe, Hapoel will now look to get back on track in the Israeli League as well, hosting Hapoel HaEmek this coming Saturday night.

Hapoel scorers: Jared Harper 20, Anthony Lamb and Khadeen Carrington 12 each, Dmytro Skapintsev 11, Roi Huber 9, Justin Smith 8, Yovel Zoosman and Austin Wiley 7 each. Nimrod Levi, Roi Pritzky and Josiah-Jordan James also played.

Harper. Led the Reds to a dominant victory

Hapoel started with Harper, Carrington, Zoosman, Lamb and Wiley, but the Polish side got off to the better start and took an 11-3 lead after just over three minutes.

The Reds turned the game around with a 15-2 run sparked by back-to-back three-pointers from Zoosman, taking an 18-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Hapoel opened the second quarter with a 20-4 run, capped by eight consecutive points from Huber, including two three-pointers. The lead continued to grow, with Harper pushing the advantage past 20 points for the first time while also becoming the first Hapoel player to reach double figures.

The gap reached as many as 24 before Kadre Gray cut into the deficit from the free-throw line, where he made nine of 11 attempts in the first half alone. Still, the Reds headed into halftime with a commanding 49-28 lead after winning the second quarter 31-13.

Huber. One of the driving forces behind Hapoel's second-quarter run

The Reds remained in control at the start of the second half, extending their biggest lead to 26 points. The gap remained largely intact throughout the third quarter, with Hapoel taking a 68-47 advantage into the final 10 minutes.

The Polish side opened the fourth quarter strongly and used an 11-1 run to cut the deficit to just 11 points, but Carrington and Harper quickly settled Hapoel down. Lamb then joined in to push the lead back toward the 20-point mark, and the Reds closed out a convincing 86-69 victory.