The Israeli side won by 29 points
Hapoel cruises past Trefl to keep pace with Group A leaders
Hapoel Shlomo Tel Aviv avoided a slip-up in its fight to keep pace with the top teams of Group A with a comfortable 64-93 victory at winless Trefl Sopot. The visitors pulled away for the first time in earnest in the second quarter and never let Trefl challenge. That moved Hapoel to 5-3 after having lost two of its last three games.
Marcus Foster led the way with 21 points and 8 rebounds while Tomer Ginat scored 14 points, Antonio Blakeney had 12, Patrick Beverley 11 and Bruno Caboclo chipped in 10 points. Trefl continues to wait for its first victory at 0-8 despite Jakub Schenk scoring 17 points.
Game Videos
The first part of the opening quarter was back-and-forth with five lead changes as Tarik Phillip scored 6 points for Trefl and Ginat had 4 points as Hapoel led 8-11. The visitors scored 6 straight points to extend the advantage to 12-19 and led 16-22 after 10 minutes.
Two Foster triples and a putback pushed the Hapoel cushion to 22-34. Foster added another triple and driving layup to move to 13 points in the quarter and a 29-44 lead. Trefl was down 32-45 at the break.
After Hapoel scored the first points of the second half to re-establish a 15-point lead, Trefl buried 2 three-pointers to make it 38-47. Five points from Blakeney helped Hapoel increase the margin to 44-60. It was 46-63 after a Beverley three-pointer and 50-67 after 30 minutes.
Hapoel did not let up early on in the fourth quarter with Foster getting back on the scorer’s sheet after 0 points in the third period to make it 52-73. Trefl did manage 5 straight points, but Joe Ragland drilled a triple to quickly stop the momentum and the home side did not get closer than 16 points the rest of the way.