Along with Jones, another hero for the home team was Elijah Bryant, who added more spectacular numbers to an already stellar season by pouring in a personal best 28 points, including 6 of 11 three-pointers. Fittingly, Bryant scored the final points of the game from the foul line to ensure there was no Zvezda comeback, and his added contributions of 5 assists and 9 rebounds – while spending nearly 39 minutes on the floor – underlined his importance to the Hapoel cause.
Bryant, who is surely among the leading mid-season candidates for the league MVP award, was his usual humble self after the game, telling EuroLeague TV: “We came out and fought to the end. I just try to do whatever I can to help my team win, whether it’s score, assist or rebound.”
He did all three of those things on Tuesday, but victorious coach Dimitris Itoudis preferred to focus on his team’s collective efforts in holding Zvezda’s offense to just 7 points in the last 4 minutes.
“It was not easy, there were a lot of emotions for our first game in Israel,” said Itoudis. “I think, at the end, our hustle gave us the game. We had to change the mindset defensively and the hustle we gave was amazing. [Jared] Butler was hurting us with isos onto his dominant hand, but we were able to stop that.”