Jerusalem, Hapoel Tel Aviv win in Europe

Hapoel Tel Aviv defeated Besiktas 94-73 on Wednesday night to advance to the EuroCup quarterfinals, where it will face the winner of the Gran Canaria-Besiktas playoff game in March.

Hapoel ended the regular season with a 13-5 record good for second place, just behind Paris in Division A, which gives it an automatic bye to the quarterfinal round and a date with either Gran Canaria, who finished in third place in Division B, or Besiktas, which ended up in sixth place in Division A and will take part in a Play-In matchup.

Tomer Ginat and Will Cummings each scored 16 points while Kyle Alexander and Timor both added 12 points in the win. Angel Delgado scored 15 points while Kyle Allman and Marko Simonovic each added 13 points in the defeat.

This group of guys went through a lot this season and many played hurt because of our many journeys,’ noted Tel Aviv coach Danny Franco. “It’s an amazing achievement. Amazing for us to qualify from the second place and we’re in first place in Israel.”

Hapoel Jerusalem, meanwhile, downed Tenerife 85-61 to move its Basketball Champions League round-of-16 record to 3-0 entering the national cup and international break.

Levi Randolph led the way for Hapoel with 21 points, Bryon Lamar added 17 points and Chris Johnson scored 14 points in the win. Kyle Guy paced the Spaniards with 29 points in the loss.

“This is a victory that belongs to the players,” Jerusalem bench boss Ilias Kantzouris said following the game. “They did an amazing job and put their body along with all of the little things they had to do to win against such a good team in Tenerife. We have three Israeli league games now because of the busy schedule and it’s very important that we do things the right way in order to go into the break properly.” • Joshua Halickman