A great performance by Jared Harper rallied Jerusalem from a 15-point third-quarter deficit
Jerusalem fights back to down Aris, 90-85, and snap skid
Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem started 2025 by coming back from 15 points to beat Aris Midea Thessaloniki 90-85 at Samokov Arena in Bulgaria and snap a three-game losing skid. Jerusalem trailed 44-59 in the third quarter, but fought back to improve to 8-5 in Group B.
Jared Harper poured in 29 points on 16-of-17 free-throw shooting plus 5 assists for a performance index rating of 38 in the win. Khadeen Carrington scored 15 points and Justin Smith and Tarik Phillip both added 14 points for the victors. Aris faces a real uphill battle to reach the playoffs after falling to 3-10 with its sixth loss in the last seven games. Sharife Cooper and Trey Woodbury both had 17 points, Darral Willis collected 16 points and 10 rebounds and new addition LJ Figueroa also tallied 16 points in the loss.
Game Videos
The game started with a real back and forth with eight lead changes in the first 4 minutes as Joshua Roberts scored 6 points - the last basket starting a 0-6 spurt to send Aris ahead 9-14. The visitors' offense dried up for nearly 3 minutes and Jerusalem reclaimed the lead, 16-14. There were three more lead changes with Willis scoring all 5 points for an 18-19 Aris lead after 10 minutes.
Woodbury started taking advantage of his size difference by going to the basket for Aris’s next 6 points, re-establishing a 5-point lead at 20-25. Yovel Zoosman and Harper drained triples and 5 Carrington free throws put Jerusalem back up 33-32. Two three-pointers in the final 38 seconds of the first half had Aris up 37-41 at the break.
Aris drained 3 straight triples as part of a 0-11 run early in the second half as the advantage grew to 15 points. Five points from Cooper had the visitors up 44-59 only to have Jerusalem fight back to within single digits at 51-59. Harper’s three-point play made it 57-64. Aris was holding strong and was ahead 63-71 after three quarters.
Jerusalem continued its surge in the final frame with the first 7 points to cut the gap to 70-71 after nearly 3 minutes. Jerusalem finally evened the game at 75-75 on a Harper triple, but Aris did not break initially despite being held scoreless for 4 minutes. Willis free throws had Aris up 80-83. Zoosman answered with a three-pointer to tie it again and Carrington’s free throws made it 85-84 with 38 seconds to play. Harper followed with a great defensive play with 25 seconds left, drawing a charge on Cooper for the latter's fifth foul and then burying 2 more free throws to give Jerusalem the lead 87-84 with 23 seconds to go. Vassilis Toliopoulos managed just one of three foul shots for the visitors and then Zoosman converted 3 free throws with 13 seconds remaining to finish the game.