About two weeks before the opening of the Winner Basket Cup, Hapoel Tel Aviv provided its first statement of intent this evening (Sunday), when it won the final of the preparatory tournament in Sardinia, after an 89:92 victory over Dynamo Cesari. The Reds were missing Bar Timur, who is recovering from an injury, and national team players Tomer Ginat and Idan Zalmanson.
Hapoel Tel Aviv started with a quintet with Gil Benny, Xavier Manford, James Young, JP Tokoto and Chris Horton. After a tight first quarter that ended in a 22:22 tie, the Reds switched gears offensively, scoring 30 points in the next ten minutes and three of Eyal Harel from the NBA range sent them to the break with a 43:52 lead.
Chinano Onuaku, last year's player of the season, minimized damage for the Italians early in the third quarter, Jacob Brown re-opened a double-digit gap, Cesari began sniping from the outside and Stefano Gentilla tied the score, but Gil Benny and Jaylen Hurd closed out the quarter with a red advantage, 69:72.
A back door by Harel and a 3-pointer by Brown established the advantage, but the American guard left due to an injury and Onoaku narrowed it down, 78:77.
Horton from half distance and Benny with another shot from the outside increased the score again, but Chris Dow - another ex of the Winner Basket League - equalized with a dunk, 83:83.
Tokuto lifted Horton to Eli Hope and Benny again shot beyond the arc, Dao again equalized, 88:88, a minute to the end.
Manford broke the tie with a 3-pointer of his own, Philip Croslin tried to answer and only found a board but Benny committed an attacking foul and the hosts took a timeout with 17 seconds on the clock.
Onuaku and Tokuto stepped to the line and scored only 1 of 2 each, "The Chief" got one last chance to equalize, but his 3-pointer was stopped in the ring and the Reds won the tournament, 89:92 at the end
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