Peristeri suffer disappointing European elimination  

BASKETBALL CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - PLAY OFFS (LEG 2)

Peristeri suffered a bitter 79-73 defeat against Hapoel Jerusalem behind closed doors to bow out of the Basketball Champions League in the Last 16. 

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Hapoel Jerusalem, one of the tournament’s favourites and already leading 1-0 in the series after earning a victory in Israel last week, took advantage of the chance to qualify for the quarter-finals with a pulsating 79-73 win against Peristeri in Greece. The battle took place behind closed doors as a result of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak across the globe.

James Feldeine, scoring 24 points, dominated the game for Hapoel Jerusalem by draining an impressive total of five three-pointers. As for Peristeri, Yanick Moreira achieved a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while Panagiotis Vasilopoulos scored 12 points.

J’Covan Brown finished as the leading scorer for Hapoel Jerusalem with 25 points to his name.

Hapoel Jerusalem will now prepare to face San Pablo Burgos in the next stage of the Basketball Champions League.

THE MATCH

Despite the match being played inside an empty Andreas Papandreou Arena, the teams immediately began competing at an intense tempo, committing plenty of fouls in the process. Unfortunately for Peristeri, Hapoel Jerusalem were the first to settle and begin playing with authority, and Feldeine drained a flawless three-pointer after the hosts clumsily lost the ball to put the visitors up 12-7.

Nimrod Levi thumped an emphatic dunk in towards the end of the frame as Hapoel Jerusalem took it 15-11 to put themselves in a solid position.

A position which they firmly enhanced in the second quarter.

Shooting the ball poorly, Peristeri contrived to make life rather difficult for themselves in the second frame, missing open shots while Hapoel Jerusalem simply couldn’t miss. In attack, Will Hatcher had a great opportunity to bring Peristeri back to 21-24, however his pass to a teammate drifted harmlessly out of play and Jerusalem punished that mistake with a layup at the other end.

TaShawn Thomas completed a three-point play as Jerusalem, playing with confidence and cohesion, opened up a 10-point lead. Boasting all of the momentum, the Israeli side subsequently began picking off Peristeri with accurate three-point shots, and Moreira was seen engaging in a loud disagreement with DeAndre Kane during a time-out as the home team became increasingly frustrated.

Emanuel Terry got a layup to go on the buzzer to make sure that Hapoel held a large 46-28 advantage with 20 minutes in the books with Peristeri all over the place.

However, by flying out of the blocks at the start of the third quarter, Peristeri suddenly started embarking on an unlikely comeback. Ioannis Agravanis scored the first bucket of the frame to give Peristeri something to work with.

Vasilopoulos struck gold from behind the arc with the Greeks building much-needed momentum.

Hapoel Jerusalem, having played with such calmness during the first half of proceedings, were starting to panic with Moreira scoring two layups in a row to bring the deficit down to a mere seven points.

Predictably, the Israelis opted to use their time-out, but in truth it made little difference. In the concluding play of the quarter, Hatcher could have even taken their lead down to four points, but he missed and Hapoel Jerusalem led 53-47 with one period remaining.

Peristeri continued applying huge pressure on Jerusalem in the opening plays of the fourth quarter. At one point, they were only behind by three points after Kingsley Moses had netted a three-pointer and dunked the ball home.

Nevertheless, with his team leading by six, Thomas hit a vital three-point effort to put Hapoel Jerusalem back in the ascendancy. A moment which well and truly burst Peristeri’s balloon.

With 47 seconds remaining, Vasilopoulos scored from distance to reduce Jerusalem’s advantage to five points, but Peristeri’s valiant charge ran out of time.

HIGHLIGHTS

by Shaun Nicolaides

Image Source: gazzetta.gr

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