Jerusalem outplayed by Bayern in Germany
Hapoel’s Eurocup hopes suffer another blow with fourth straight defeat over all competitions
Despite already replacing its coach and making several changes to the roster, Hapoel Jerusalem’s crisis only continues to deepen.
Jerusalem fell to a 2-6 record in Eurocup Group B with a 111-85 defeat at Bayern Munich on Wednesday night, suffering its fourth straight loss over all competitions.
With two regular season games to play, and with Hapoel still only one game back of fourth place which will lead to a berth to the Top 16, the reigning Israeli champion still has everything to play for.
However, to have any chance of qualifying by winning its final two games, first at home against Reggio Emilia of Italy next week before capping its campaign against Galatasaray in Istanbul, Hapoel will need to somehow register a dramatic improvement.
That is looking less and less likely with every passing week, with Jerusalem losing at Buducnost in Montenegro by 17 points last week before being thrashed by 26 points by Bayern.
The team looked to be heading in the right direction when it won three consecutive games over all competitions following the promotion of Mody Maor to the head coaching position last month.
That feels like a long time ago now, with Hapoel at best only playing well sporadically.
The Germans won in Jerusalem in October after outscoring the hosts 31-12 in the first 10 minutes and withstanding a second-half comeback.
It was a similar story on Wednesday, with Munich opening a 30-19 lead after the first quarter. The margin reached 21 points before Hapoel scored the final five points of the first half to slightly limit the damage (5135). The contest still looked to be as good as over, only for the visitors to go on an unexpected run to cut the deficit to just four points. Stratos Perperoglou’s three-pointer made it 70-66 with 2:46 minutes to play in the third period, but it wouldn’t take long for the hosts to reestablish a double-digit margin.
An 11-0 run put Bayern in complete control once more (81-66) and Jerusalem never really believed it was capable of coming back.
Perperoglou and Tarence Kinsey scored 19 points each for Jerusalem, that was playing for the first time since the appointment of Micky Gorka as a new assistant coach. Gorka was sacked by Bnei Herzliya last week.
Danilo Barthel had 21 points for Bayern, which improved to 8-0 and is
20-1 over all competitions this season.
Elsewhere Wednesday, Maccabi Haifa registered a third straight BSL win, beating Bnei Herzliya 86-72. After losing five of its first six league games, Haifa improved to 4-5 on Wednesday, going on a 10-2 run over three fourth-quarter minutes to open a 12-point gap (71-59).
Herzliya was guided by assistant coach Alon Stein for the first time following the sacking of Gorka.
Brandon Bowman led Haifa with 19 points and 11 rebounds, with Taurean Green and Shawn Dawson scoring 16 points each for Herzliya, which is in last place in the standings with a 2-7 record.