SOFIA — Hapoel IBI Tel Aviv overwhelmed Besiktas Istanbul 100-82 in Sofia on Wednesday, 14 October, turning a tight contest into a comfortable EuroLeague victory to improve to 3-2 after a decisive third-quarter surge.
Hapoel outscored Besiktas 32-16 in the third period, including a 17-1 run that broke the game open after the Turkish side had kept pace to trail only 43-39 at the break. The Israeli side raised their defensive intensity after half-time to limit Besiktas to 16 points in the quarter, while finishing with five players in double figures, shooting 11 of 20 from three-point range for 55% and converting 21 of 24 free throws compared with Besiktas' six makes from 17 attempts.
Vasilije Micic and Elijah Bryant led Hapoel with 16 points apiece, while Amir Coffey, Zach LeDay and Antonio Blakeney added 15 each. LeDay was named player of the game after shooting 5-for-8 from the field and 4-for-4 at the free-throw line while collecting six rebounds. Ante Zizic led all scorers with 17 points and nine rebounds for Besiktas, with Eugene Omoruyi contributing 12 points and Wenyen Gabriel finishing with 10, but the visitors could not maintain their first-half momentum despite scoring 27 points in the fourth quarter.
The defeat dropped Dusan Alimpijevic's team to 2-3 after five EuroLeague rounds. Hapoel head coach Dimitris Itoudis rotated his players in the fourth quarter as his side began preparing for Friday's trip to undefeated Panathinaikos AKTOR Athens, a meeting with added significance given Itoudis previously served as assistant to Zeljko Obradovic at Panathinaikos during their 13-year partnership from 1998 to 2012 that yielded five EuroLeague titles. Besiktas will host Bayern Munich as both teams look to improve their early-season records.