Hapoel Jerusalem returned to its home court last night (Wednesday) after two disappointing away losses in the league to Hapoel Holon and Bnei Herzliya and hoped to return to the winning track, but once again presented a bad and uncoordinated game, scoring very low percentages from outside the arc, on the way to a disappointing home loss, 80:71 to Ludwigsburg. That complicated the Reds in the fight for the ticket to the next stage of the factory and gave Aleksandar Džikić a lot of reasons for concern and food for thought.
"Congratulations to our opponent, they came here and played the way they should have. I'm not satisfied with the fact that we don't react well enough in defense and don't manage to stop the opponent's star and that's something we'll have to change soon in order to be successful this year," the Hapoel Jerusalem coach shared at the end.
Zach Hankins, who was one of the few bright spots in Jerusalem with 18 points and 5 rebounds, shared his feelings at the end: "It's just not good enough. We have to fight the difficulties better. We are a talented team, much better than we showed and probably on another night we would have won. We have to fight More in defense. If shots don't go in, we have to manage in other ways."
In the club, we marked the significant loss to the Germans in the battle for rebounds, 47:38, and the 14 rebounds they took in the attack, from which they produced 21 points from a second chance, as a major factor in the loss.
"We weren't aggressive enough, we failed in the battle for rebounds and I take it upon myself. I wasn't aggressive and combative enough," Hankins admitted.
The host had a bad shooting night from outside the arc last night, which was expressed in extraordinary percentages.
The Jerusalemites finished the match with 1/24 from beyond the arc, 4.2%.
"I don't score, so I don't shoot 3-pointers, but it's frustrating that you shoot so much and don't hit," Hankins added. It's hard to maintain a uniform level of energy and fight if we don't manage to score free throws," concluded the Serbian coach.
The team doesn't have much time to prepare for the next game, as Rami Hadar's Hapoel Gilboa/Galil will arrive at the Arena in Jerusalem on Monday, for a game that the Reds cannot afford to lose.
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