Hapoel moved to the Final 4 after another win against Rilski and 2-1 in the series

Israeli side BC Hapoel Tel Aviv became the third team to reach the 2012 Final 4 of the EUROHOLD Balkan League after BC Galil Gilboa (Israel) and BC Levski  (Bulgaria).

Hapoel overcame the 2011 BIBL runner-up Rilski Sportist 78:60 in the third game
of the quarterfinal play-off series, and won the series 2-1 games, after trailing 0-1 before their games at home this week. Hapoel reached the Final 4 in their debut season in the EUROHOLD BIBL.
 
Matan Naor opened up the score tonight, making a three-pointer (3:0) and Curtis Kelly added two points after that, giving Hapoel a 5:0 lead early in the first quarter. Branko Mirkovic scored a three – 5:3, but Demontez Stitt striked back with a three of his own – 8:3 with 7.30 left on the clock. Vaklinov and Kelly scored one basket each, before Hapoel managed to break ahead by a bigger margin – 13:5 with 5.04 to go after a three by Cory Carr. Rilski scored four straight points, decreasing the difference to four – 13:9, but Hapoel responded with six unanswered, getting their first double-digit lead – 19:9 with 2.34 to go. Rilski scored four more points until
the end of the first, and after 10 minutes they were down by six – 19:13.
 
Hapoel started the second period scoring five points in the first two minutes, and extending their lead back to double digits – 24:13 with 7.56 remaining. The home side continued to dictate the tempo on the court, and halfway through the second quarter remained ahead by more than 10 points – 29:18 with 5.00 left, when Rosen Barchovski took a time-out. In the following minutes Hapoel remained in control, but however until halftime, Riletso managed to decrease the deficit, and halfway through the game they were down by 8 points – 38:30 after 20 minutes.
 
Once again Hapoel started with a 5-0 run, right after halftime, after a basket by Demontez Stitt and a three by Matan Naor, extending their lead to 13 points – 43:30 with 9 minutes to go. Rilski managed to get closer to their opposition, scoring 13 points in the next six minutes, against just six for Hapoel, as the score was 47:43 in favor of the home team with a little less than three minutes to go in the third period. However Hapoel managed to regain the lead by a bigger margin, and until the end of the quarter they got back the 8-point lead from halftime, leading 54:46 after 30 minutes.

Bar Timor scored right after the start of the fourth period, extending his team’s lead to 10 points – 56:46 with 9.23 left in the quarter. Ante Bilobrk responded with a
three-pointer (56:49), but Curtis Kellym , Aviram Zelekovits and Bar Timor scored nine unanswered points, giving Hapoel a commanding 65:49 lead with 7.26 left to play. As the minutes kept going, the Final 4 was getting closer and closer for Hapoel. Curtis Kelly gave his team a commanding 17-point lead – 69:52 with less than five minutes to go, and the home team didn’t let anything happen until the very end. The final score was settled at 78:60.
 
Curtis Kelly had a solid game tonight – 20 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 1 block. Matan Naor also had a nice all-around performance – 18 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocked shots. Gal Eytan added 11 points,5 assists and 6 steals, while Cory Carr had 9 points in the win.
 
Branko Mirkovic led Rilski Sportist with 16 points and 4 assists. Martin Marinov added 13 off the bench (4/5 from long range) and Sasa Mijajlovic had 12 points and 8 rebounds in the loss.
 
Rilski Sportist made 19 turnovers against just 8 for Hapoel. Also some of Riletso’s key players failed to shoot the ball well, as Hristo Zahariev, Ante Bilobrk and Filip Vukosavljevic combined for a total of five made field goals.
 
In the semifinals of the BIBL, Hapoel will face Galil Gilboa, as according to the Regulations of the Balkan League, if two clubs from the same country reach the Final 4, they must play in the semifinals.