Hapoel loses a close game in Thessaloniki

Hapoel was hosted today (Wed) in Thessaloniki for an away game against PAOK and lost 79:77. Hapoel came to the match after two victories in the group stage of the Champions League against Galatasaray and Benfica. The game was broadcast in a special screening at the Pais Arena in Jerusalem with about 1,000 fans and was actually the first sports event with an audience in a closed place since the beginning of the war.

Before the screening, Hapoel held a ceremony for the return of the abductees. The seats in the entire lower ring were filled with pictures of the hostages held captive by Hamas in Gaza, including two of the team's fans, Ofir Angel and Hersh Goldberg-Pollin, whose picture was hung on the fence in Stand 1, the cheering stand where they used to jump and cheer. The fans arrived wrapped in Israeli flags, the loud cheering songs were replaced by quiet songs, and the "Yalla Hapoel" chant before the start of the game was replaced by a jarring and painful minute of silence.

Hersh's picture on the fence of Stand 1 (Photo: Oren Ben Hakun)

Speedy Smith leads the Jerusalem offense (Photo: FIBA)

Both teams struggled at the start of the second quarter, with Brinton Lamar scoring the first basket from half distance. Thessaloniki woke up and went on a 6:0 run when Hapoel struggled and suffered from many moments of lack of concentration. The scorers of the Reds, Levi and Dino, were the breakers of the defenses in those moments. PAOK continued to dominate and dictate the pace, and sent D?iki? to a timeout with his team. A lot of confusion accompanied the end of the first half when, at the end, 39:35 to PAOK.

No easy baskets (photo: FIBA)
 

Hapoel managed to take the lead at the beginning of the third quarter. PAOK continued with an impressive offensive flow, with three-pointers at every opportunity and from every range. The difference increased to 9 and forced D?iki?'s players to go to time-out. From the timeout, Chris Johnson returned with a three-pointer from the corner, and together with Levi Randolph, they bit into the Greek lead more and more. Later in the quarter, PAOK began to dominate without question when Hapoel lost a lot of balls, and Thessaloniki managed to punish many times and finish the game with a significant advantage of 63:52 heading into the last ten minutes of basketball.

For the fourth quarter, the Red Devils went up in a frenzy. The red fans who flocked to the Hafis Arena at the festive screening opened their throats and gave energy to the team's players, led by Maurice Ndour and Khadeen Carrington, who went on a run and took the Greeks down for a timeout. Lemar started to take control, and together with Speedy Smith, they made great offensive and defensive moves until they completely tied the score of the game with a run of 17:6, 5 minutes to the end. Hapoel lost concentration and allowed the Greeks to take the lead by 5, with a timeout by D?iki? in order to save the game. The running timeout came back sharper and reduced the margin to just two points with 120 seconds left in the game. Those few seconds passed slowly and with a lot of tension when Hapoel launched a final attack, trailing by a point. Speedy missed a 3-pointer, and Hapoel loses the game 79:77.

Scored for Hapoel: Randolph 19, Johnson 12, Lemar 10, Smith 9, Carrington 8, Ndour 7, Hankins, and Zoosman 6.