McRae sparks amazing Hapoel comeback for 93-95 win in London
Hapoel Vegan Friendly Tel Aviv rallied from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to knock off London Lions 93-95 on the road in a Group B thriller. Jordan McRae scored 15 of his 36 points in the final frame for an index rating of 40 as Hapoel improved to 6-4 with its third straight win. J’Covan Brown added 18 points - including the game-winning jumper with 12 seconds left - and Chinanu Onuaku chipped in 10 points and 17 rebounds. London dropped its third straight game to fall to 4-6 despite Sam Dekker pouring in 29 points and Tomislav Zubcic and Jordan Taylor both scoring 19 points.
London jumped ahead 7-0 in the first 2 minutes and Taylor drained a three-pointer in a 10-2 run for a 22-9 lead. McRae answered with 6 points in a 3-10 spurt to get within 28-23 and the score was 30-27 after 10 minutes.
Zubcic drained 2 three-pointers for a 38-32 advantage early in the second quarter but Brown would not let Hapoel get too far behind with 5 points to pull within 44-43. Dekker punched back with 5 points as the lead grew to 49-43 and it was 58-48 at the break.
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Hapoel picked up its defense and kept London scoreless for 3 minutes and trimmed the deficit to 59-56. London finally got its offense going again to move ahead 66-56, and a transition triple from Taylor increased the gap to 75-63, which was 75-65 after 30 minutes.
Three-pointers from Taylor and Dekker early in the fourth quarter pushed the margin to 81-67 with under 8 minutes to play. Hapoel was not ready to give up with Tomer Ginat and Brown hitting triples and McRae fought in 11 points in a 2-20 run to put the guests ahead 83-87. Taylor would not have it with a three-pointer and 2 free throws as London reclaimed the lead 90-89. After a McRae jumper, Dekker connected from deep to make it 93-91 with 58 seconds remaining. Hapoel was unfazed with Onuaku putting back a miss and Brown hitting a jumper for a 93-95 lead with 12 seconds to go. London could not find a final score on the final possession and Hapoel got the win.