It was difficult, inelegant and squeaky, but the bottom line is that Hapoel Jerusalem got out of a big mess in Denmark. Aleksandar Dzikic’s team beat Bakken Bears 71:72 this evening (Tuesday), in a game in which they were already behind by 10 points and thanks to a dunk, a great victory by Marks Meiris, two seconds before the end of the game. At the end of a drama, the Jerusalemites avoided a surprise and rose to a 1:2 balance that brings them very close to at least the play-in stage of the Champions League.
From this game, Džikić can be satisfied almost exclusively with one thing, and that is the victory itself. The players from the capital once again presented a confused, inconsistent and not high-quality game, and after a shocking offensive start, they quickly found themselves behind by double digits during the second quarter, when they scored only 28 points in the first half.
The quality wasn’t there, but the character was. The Reds got into the second half in a better way and started to offset the difference led by Myris, Zach Hankins and Levi Randolph. The trio got down to business and returned Džikić after long moments of frustration and mediocre basketball on both sides of the court. The two teams remained close to each other until the end, but in the end a huge move by Meiris, who sank and also drew a foul two seconds before the end, decided the match.
It was not impressive, but even Jerusalem knows that it must come out of such complications with victory, and in this sense it fulfilled its mission. In any case, the team, which recorded a third victory in a row in all the frameworks, will have to register a great improvement in its ability if it expects to achieve achievements in Europe after quite a few years of disappointments.
Now Jerusalem will try to continue to recover in the game this Sunday against Hapoel Haifa in Rome, after which they will meet Galil Iliyon and then Maccabi Tel Aviv, for a huge game. In fact, the next time the team will play in the European framework it will only happen on 30.11, against the same Bakken Bears, hoping that this game will end with less heart palpitations.
the progress of the game
Hapoel Jerusalem’s top five: Speedy Smith, Orr Cornelius, Levi Randolph Marks Myris, Zach Hankins
The five Bakken Bears: Skyler Bevlin, Darko Jokic, Ryan Evans, Deng Adel and Michael Diouf
The game opened with a high offensive pace, and while Meiris scored a three-pointer on one side, Diouf, Evans and Adel took care of punishing on the other side on the way to a 5:7 Danish advantage, after a little less than three minutes. Jerusalem was confused in attack, lost quite a few balls and allowed Bakken on the way to points on the other side. After a basket and a foul by Childs, Bakken Bears took the lead 9:14. Carrington came in and tried to revive Jerusalem in the attack, but Bakken Bears continued to score and after two accurate shots by Childs from the line, the lead went down 12:19 for the first quarter break.
Cornelius opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer, but Bovlin responded with a shot from beyond the arc on the other side on the way to 15:24 Dany three minutes later in the second quarter. Bakken took a double-digit lead, thanks to another 3-pointer by Bowlin, and this time Dovret responded with a 3-pointer of his own that narrowed the score to 28:22, and caused a timeout for the host. On the return Carr scored a layup, Randolph responded with two firsts on the other end but the Danes still held the lead – 28:35 at half time
Carrington started the first half well, and after making a 3-pointer for Randolph, added two of his own and shrunk to 37:33 2 minutes later in the quarter. Randolph added another three-pointer, Hankins added six straight and six minutes later in the third quarter, the scoreboard showed 44:44. Carrington restored the advantage to the red side, but the Bakken Bears still held the lead in the end – 49:50.
A big dunk by Meiris gave Jerusalem a record lead of 52:57, three and a half minutes into the last quarter, but Jerusalem lost concentration and allowed Diouf to score five straight on the way to 60:62 in favor of the Jerusalemites, with four minutes to go. Bakken Bears came within a point, but with a minute to go Carrington reacted with a good penetration and put Jerusalem up 67:70. Evans was able to restore the advantage to the Danish side six seconds to the end, but a dunk and a tremendous foul by Meiris gave the victory to Jerusalem with 71:72 Extremely dramatic.