The hosts dominated 49-19 after the break to celebrate an emphatic victory
Hapoel thrives on ironclad second-half defense to overwhelm Dubai
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 20 of 38
Regular Season
Hapoel IBI Tel AvivHTA
8560
Dubai BasketballDUB
Overview
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Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv romped to an 85-60 home win over Dubai Basketball and improved to 14-6 in the EuroLeague after a rampant second half in which the visitors were blown away by the home team’s immaculate defense.
Having led 36-41 at the interval, Dubai had no reply for Hapoel’s aggressive second-half hustle and dropped to 9-11 after scoring a mere 6 points in the fourth quarter, with the home team running riot from all over and putting the icing on the cake with some spectacular plays.
The only downside for Hapoel was a torn Achilles tendon suffered by Tyler Ennis, who has previously had multiple injuries, including a fractured ankle in 2018 during his time with Fenerbahce Beko Istanbul and an ACL tear in 2020 when he featured for Turk Telekom Ankara.
Antonio Blakeney produced a masterclass for Hapoel as he led the charge with 25 points and 7 rebounds, while playmaker Vasilije Micic added 19 as the hosts racked up a staggering 47 rebounds, 14 of them on the offensive end.
Dubai got off to a great start as it dominated the offensive boards, collecting 6 in the opening 10 minutes to take a 17-24 first-quarter lead as Dwayne Bacon and Filip Petrusev netted 7 points each. Blakeney caught fire in the second as he sank 9 points in the period, but Aleksa Avramovic responded at the other end with 8 points, 3 assists and 2 steals for Dubai to keep the visitors ahead as they led 36-41 at halftime.
Then came the third quarter whirlwind as Blakeney started hitting mid-range jumpes for fun, followed by some long-range artillery, and Micic followed in his footsteps, turning the game on its head. More one-way traffic followed in the fourth with Dubai throwing in the towel well before the final buzzer.
“Our defensive effort was enormous and smart at the same time. Dubai are such a talented team and we managed to keep them under 20 points for the two quarters and that says a lot,” Hapoel head coach Dimitris Itoudis said in his postgame comments.
“We showed that we have the identity to compete when things are not going well for us. Dubai have multiple ways of hurting you, but defensively we were there, we stayed composed and kept believing that we can make it happen. Last but not least, we want to applaud the fans who were here, there were 7,000 heroes in the gym,” the Greek tactician added. “Unfortunately we have some bad news about Tyler. We know he’s a tough kid, but it doesn’t look good.”
With Hapoel losing two of its previous three, including an 80-93 home defeat by Zalgiris Kaunas in Round 19, Blakeney acknowledged that defeat was not an option against Dubai. “We had to bounce back,” he said. “They were scoring on us, so we changed the defense and made it happen.”
Micic added: “We played a great game and used the energy we got from the fans. We were ready for today’s game and I think we deserved the victory,” said the Serbian playmaker who went on to extend best wishes to those celebrating Christmas by the Julian calendar.
There was not much visiting coach Jurica Golemac could complain about after seeing his team swept aside in a lop-sided second half, as Dubai committed 14 turnovers, having managed as many assists, while shooting 4-of-19 from deep and collecting just 31 boards.
“We didn’t show up in the second half,” Golemac said. “We didn’t make the stops and we played as individuals, so congratulations to Hapoel.”
