In a very tight game, it was the German side which managed to come out on top
Hamburg secures hard-fought win over Jerusalem, 82-80
Veolia Towers Hamburg improved to a 3-9 record in the BKT EuroCup by beating Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem 82-80 in Round 12 on Tuesday night, with the hosts still bottom of the Group B standings but now 3-3 on their home floor. Jerusalem, in third place in Group B, dropped to 7-5.
Jaizec Lottie netted 18 points, Kur Kuath had a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double, Brae Ivey and Niklas Wimberg scored 12 points apiece, and Johnathan Stove finished with 10 points. Jerusalem, which had just eight minutes play more than one minute, had Jared Harper net 26 points, Tarik Phillip score 13, Khadeen Carrington add 11, and Derek Ogbeide contribute 10.
Game Videos
Kuath got Hamburg going early by scoring 6 points to make it 10-4, with the hosts starting the game hot. Jerusalem showed glimpses of its talent, with an Ogbeide dunk and a Harper three-pointer quickly making it a one-point ballgame (10-9), but Wimberg’s 5 straight points gave Hamburg some breathing room once again at 15-9. However, the Harper-led Jerusalem outscored Hamburg 4-11 over the next four and a half minutes to lead 19-22 in the final seconds of the quarter, only for Wimberg to score off a smart out-of-bounds play by Lottie which made it 21-22 after 10 minutes.
Back-to-back threes by Lottie helped Hamburg regain momentum, and the hosts ended up staying in front until the final 2:30 minutes of the quarter. A big Ogbeide dunk saw Jerusalem take the lead for the first time in the period at 39-40, but Hamburg scored 4 straight before Harper tied it up at 43-43 entering the halftime break.
The lead kept changing hands in the third quarter, but Hamburg was finding ways to stay in front with Kuath, Stove and Lottie all heavily involved. When Lottie and Kuath combined for an alley-oop to make it 58-53 with 2:45 minutes to go, that was the biggest lead either team had in the quarter, and Jared Grey maintained that five-point lead with a backdoor cut and layup to push the score to 60-55. At the end of the quarter, five points by Phillip allowed Jerusalem to get within 62-60.
Hamburg stayed in front for almost the first nine minutes of the fourth, even if the lead never extended beyond four points, but Chris Johnson’s corner three with 1:12 minutes remaining to make it 78-79 almost took the air out of the arena. Jeremy Morgan went 1 for 2 from the line, 78-80, but Lottie scored an amazing layup while being fouled and then converted the and-one free throw to nudge Hamburg ahead once more, 81-80. Even if Kuath went 0 for 2 with seven seconds left, the ball ended up in the hands of Wimberg, who had a 1-for-2 trip to the line and put the 82-80 win on ice.