There were occasional glimpses of Hapoel’s offensive capability, with Elijah Bryant nailing a three-pointer and Johnathan Motley adding a trademark mid-range strike, but on the whole, it was a low-scoring first quarter with the teams combining for just 10 field goal conversions on 32 attempts.
It stayed that way for the start of the second quarter, with neither team managing a field goal for nearly 4 minutes as the scoreboard was only bothered by a small trickle of free throws. And the same pattern stayed in place for the remainder of the first half, which ended with Hapoel edging a 27-28 lead.
Eventually Fenerbahce’s high-quality defense had its reward at the other end with similarly productive offense, after the switch was flicked at the start of the third quarter: Tarik Biberovic and Onuralp Bitim both struck three-pointers while Talen Horton-Tucker scored twice inside during a 14-2 run over the course of less than 5 minutes, giving the Turkish team a double-digit advantage and a degree of control.
Back-to-back three-pointers from Bonzie Colson then kept the home team rolling with a 10-point lead heading into the final period, and although Hapoel threatened to fight back with a burst of scoring from Bryant and Vasilije Micic, Fener’s defense again came to the fore by holding the visitor scoreless for the final 2 minutes.