Hapoel used big second half to beat Bourg, 86-77

Gabi Chachashvili played a major role in the win with career-highs of 20 points and 11 boards

Regular Season

Round 8 of 18

game Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse vs Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem

Group B

13 November 2024, 18:00

Regular Season

13 November 2024, 18:00

Regular Season

Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem

JLM

86

77

Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse

JLB

Final Score

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l

w

l

w

l

w

Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem earned a hard-fought 86-77 victory over visiting Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse at Samokov Arena on Wednesday night to improve its record to 6-2 and claim sole possession of second place in Group B. Jerusalem trailed 37-41 at halftime, but outscored its opponent 21-8 in the 6 first minutes of the third period to take control of the game and never look back. Bourg, which missed top scorer Xavier Castaneda, dropped to 5-3.

Gabi Chachasvili led the winners with a monster double-double of 20 points and 11 rebounds for a career-high PIR of 29. Jared Harper followed with 18 points and 9 assists, Khadeen Carrington poured in 14 points and Yovel Zoosman netted 10. Jordan Usher was the game's top-scorer with 22 points for Bourg, while Brandon Paul scored 16 and Kevin Kokila pulled down 11 rebounds in the losing effort.

Kokila and Usher combined early in the game to grant the visitors a 0-5 edge. Both teams struggled to find the right offensive momentum, though, with several offenses missed due to poor long-range shooting. Kokila had a crucial role at that moment, providing the visitors with several second-chance attacks that Maksim Salash exploited to make it 5-13 after scoring 4 points in a row. Harper instantly came to the rescue with back-to-back threes and Zoosman continued with a couple of free throws that dramatically closed the gap to 15-15. Another bomb by Zoosman completed the rally and gave Jerusalem its first lead, which Derek Oigbide confirmed with a monster alley-oop to end the first quarter at 22-21.

Baskets were a few and far between in the beginning of the second quarter, despite an early sharpshooting exchange between Paul and Harper. As a result, the game remained even, 26-26, right before a Bourg timeout with 6 minutes to play in the quarter. Usher converted a three-point play and Paul provided a triple to put Bourg back in charge, 31-36. Zoosman and Carrington unsuccessfully tried to get things going for Jerusalem on the other side. The hosts decided to stop the game to regroup and changed tactics to start feeding Chachasvili inside. It worked fine, as it aborted the visitors’ getaway, but Paul and Usher kept rocking and combined to keep Bourg ahead, 37-41, at halftime.

The intermission seemed to help Jerusalem more, as a 7-0 run in 2 minutes boosted the hosts to a 44-41 advantage, matching their biggest so far. Even though Adrian Morgan showed up with a three and a layup to tie it at 46-46, that spark was a first warning for Bourg. Chachashvili took over again to punish the visitors inside and Harper joined later with 5 points in a row that pushed Hapoel up, 55-46, midway through the third period. Usher broke the trend from behind the arc, as Bourg took advantage of a steal and offensive rebounding to close the gap to 58-55, but a closing 5-0 run capped by a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Or Cornelius set a 63-55 advantage for Jerusalem entering the last stanza.

The run continued early in the fourth with Noam Dovrat and Carrington combining for another 4 points that made it a double-digit gap for the first time in the game, 67-55. The first basket by Maxime Courby was immediately responded to by a tip-in by Chachashvili and that was when Bourg stopped the game to find solutions. The Jerusalem center punished again with a hook shot to make it 72-59. Paul made his fourth triple and Hugo Benitez converted an offensive rebound to keep Bourg’s heart beating but that was the closest the visitors could get close to. A deep three by Harper, who came back after spraining his ankle, returned a double-digit lead to his team with 3 minutes remaining and Carrington followed from outside to confirm the outcome, 85-72, entering the last minute.