Basketball / Jerusalem aims for ULEB quarters

[Gość: arabkazab]

Basketball / Jerusalem aims for ULEB quarters

By Arie Livnat



Hapoel Jerusalem will try to hold on to its 76-67 lead when it takes on
Prokom Sopot in Poland tonight in the second game of its ULEB Cup last-16
clash. A win or defeat by less than 10 points will send Jerusalem through to
the quarterfinals of the competition.




Sopot, last season's Polish league runner-up, has been on top of its league
for most of this season and in the ULEB Cup too it advanced smoothly from the
group stage. Last month Sopot coach Eujeniusz Kijewski added experienced
American guard Mark Miller and the Serbian center Dusan Jelic to his team,
but the two have not produced the desired results, and the team has hit a bad
patch.

In the first leg in Jerusalem, the Poles' running game suffered from Hapoel's
efficient preparation and from the loss of its playmaker, Tomas Pacesas, who
sprained his ankle early in the game. Sopot's leading scorer, Slovenian
forward Goran Jagodnik, was held to 10 points and Lithuanian center Gintaris
Einikis was shut out for most of the encounter.

Sopot lost the top spot in the Polish league last week after an 80-76 home
defeat to Unia Wisla, but Hapoel is not encouraged by the Poles' troubles.
Sopot's identity crisis and doubts over whether Pacesas will be fit for
tonight's game led Hapoel's assistant coach Avner Yaor to say earlier this
week: "Their game will have changed, and we will have to disrupt their new
game plan."

Yaor said that Hapoel would have to slow don the pace of the game and to make
sure the Poles don't have the better of the rebound. Although it lost the
first leg, Sopot led Hapoel 37-33 in rebounds.

The Poles won their home games by an average of 13 points in the group stage,
while Hapoel had a 3-2 away record. Tonight, with Raviv Limond in the side
for the first time, Hapoel has a good chance of making a historic appearance
in the quarterfinals.

Beginner's luck

Hapoel Tel Aviv and Ironi Nahariya both go into action in the knock-out stage
of the Europe League tonight and both teams have home court advantage in the
best of three series. Ironi Nahariya is up against Telekom Ankara of Turkey,
while Hapoel Tel Aviv faces EKA Lemesos of Cyprus.

Playing for the first time in Europe this season, Nahariya finished the group
stage of the competition with an impressive 11-3 record to place second in
its group, behind Zvi Sherf's Dynamo Moscow.

Ankara is considered a relatively comfortable opponent for Nahariya, and if
the northerners win through the series, they are likely to face Ural Great of
Russia in the quarterfinals.

Turkish basketball has been in decline in recent years and Ankara managed
only a third place finish with a mediocre 6-6 record. It is currently placed
seventh in the Turkish league and has been playing with only one foreign
player, American point guard Monty Mack, for the past two months. Another
leading player on the team is Romanian international center Virgil Stanescu.

"The Turks are a physical side that defends well, but is on the slow side. I
hope that with the home-court advantage, we can get through to the next
stage," Nahariya coach Avi Ashkenazi said yesterday.

Cyprus may not be a European basketball superpower, but the islanders have
been making steady progress in recent years and Apoel Nicosia won the
Challenge Cup last season.

Lemesos lost its opening four games in the group stage of the Europe League
and had been completely written out of the competition; but a six-game
winning streak took it through to the last-16 with an eventual 7-5 record,
which was enough for third place in its group.

The Cypriot's leading player is American guard Duane Woodward, who with 21.5
points per game, is slated to join one of Europe's bigger teams next season.



Doron Sheffer has been in lethal form of late and Hapoel will be counting on
another inspiring performance against Sopot tonight.
(Baz Ratner)


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