Hapoel Jerusalem has a lot to be proud about despite being defeated by Telekom Baskets Bonn 77-70 in the Basketball Champions League title game on Sunday night.
Levi Randolph put in an incredible performance with 27 points for Jerusalem, but league MVP TJ Shorts stood very tall by besting him with 29 points to take the victory.
The over 4,000 Jerusalem fans that accompanied the team to Spain, including roughly 1,000 supporters that flew the day of the game, gave it their all for their team that came up just shy of European glory.
Jerusalem can still get a double
While there was obvious disappointment in the air after the final, Jerusalem has plenty to look forward to as the Israeli season heads into the playoffs with Aleksandar Dzikic’s team looking to complete a double after capturing the Israel State Cup earlier in the season.
The Reds no doubt had an unforgettable European campaign as they came within a hair short of capturing their second ever continental championship. Dzkic’s squad fought hard, gave it their all but just didn’t have enough to take down arguably the best team in the competition.
“It was a tough one for us today,” Randolph began. “We knew they were a good team and we had a rough first half. They were better and I am proud of my guys, coach and coaching staff. We had a great season and came up short by one game, but I am proud of my guys.”
Jerusalem entered the championship matchup after taking down the defending title holder Tenerife 69-68 in the first semifinal of the Final Four that took place in Malaga in what was a very emotionally charged game.
Perhaps Jerusalem and its brass looked at the Tenerife game as kind of a final in some aspects because of Tenerife’s strength within the Spanish ACB League, where it sits in fourth place.
With a powerful and talented roster, one that could rival many Euroleague teams, Dzikic knew that this was going to be a tough matchup from A to Z and one that would take much out of his team.
Khadeen Carrington, Brandon Brown and Siim Sander-Vene were critical in the victory that saw energy and emotions flood out of the Reds, which perhaps caused them to peak just a bit too early with one more game to go.
But hindsight is 20/20 and, with that in mind, Jerusalem went into the final with the absolute goal of winning it all. Did the Reds come up on the wrong end of the stick? Yes. Can they be proud as to how they performed in Europe all season long? That answer is a resounding yes as well.
Hapoel have reason to be proud
While the wounds are still open, Jerusalem will need to take a day or two to put the BCL behind it and then get ready in earnest for the upcoming best-of-five quarterfinal series against last year’s finalist Bnei Herzliya. Oren Aharoni’s team will be charged up and rested as they will want to try to prove a point that last season’s success was no fluke.
Eyal Homsky, part of the Jerusalem ownership group, also understands that while everyone is proud of the Reds’ accomplishments, there is still an entire playoffs to go with the league title hanging in the balance.
“We got to the final, we lost and now we have to lift ourselves up and get ready for the playoffs. We don’t have time to cry. The fans did an amazing job and what happened with the coach, we brought much pride to this club. I am proud of the players, fans, coach, staff and everyone deserves credit.”
There’s no question that Jerusalem will need to switch gears very quickly as it will not want to come into a postseason clash still down in the dumps after a tough and emotionally draining continental Final Four. Many of the players, if not all of them, are still most probably licking their wounds after the devastating defeat.
However, they will need to be on the ball in more ways than one as their head coach and leader will not be with them as he heads back to his homeland of Serbia for the funeral of his mother. Dzikic personally experienced a wave of emotions the entire week leading up to the Final Four and his absence will be notable.
Will Jerusalem be able to pick up the shattered pieces very quickly and make a deep run in the Israeli league playoffs? Can Hapoel brush aside this loss in fine fashion as fast as possible and refocus on the matter at hand?
Randolph took one of Dzikic’s adages as the Reds now move ahead to the next stop on their journey: “Like coach says, ‘one game doesn’t define our season.’”