2009-10QuarterfinalsGame 2
March 31, 2010 CET: 19:45
Local time: 19:45 O2 WORLD
Steffen Hamann and Derrick Byars - Alba BerlinAlba Berlin made it to the Eurocup Finals! Alba managed to make it to the finals by downing Hapoel Jerusalem 72-59 in the second leg of the Eurocup Quarterfinals in front of 14,500 fans at the O2 World in the German capital on Wednesday. Alba won the series on points differential and reached a European club competition semifinal for the first time since winning the Korac Cup title in 1995. Derrick Byars paced the winners with 16 points. Adam Chubb added 14 - 10 in the fourth quarter - Rashad Wright had 12 while Immanuel McElroy got 11 for Alba, that was without scoring ace Julius Jenkins. Pooh Jeter led Hapoel with 19 points. Tre Simmons added 10 for the guests. Kevinn Pinkney sank an early three-pointer, but Alba shined early in defense and found a go-to guy in Byars, who had 10 points in a 20-4 run that gave Alba a 20-7 margin at the end of the first quarter. Hapoel improved its defense and found a go-to guy in Thompson, that got some help from Jeter and Brandon Hunter to make the guests tie the series, 26-20. Blagota Sekulic and McElroy allowed Alba to get a 36-28 margin at halftime. Three-pointers by Dragan Dojcin, Byars, Wright and Steffen Hamann made Alba get a 52-37 margin after 30 minutes. Jeter singlehandedly brought Hapoel back to the series, 63-55, but an outstanding Chubb stepped up in crunch time to make all Alba fans celebrate a historical win.

Pinkney got Hapoel going with a three-pointer but a six-meter jumper by Wright and free throws by McElroy soon gave Alba its first lead, 4-3. Hapoel tried to use long possessions from the very beginning but struggled to find open shots. Meanwhile, Byars struck from downtown and a step-back jumper by McElroy tied the series, 9-3, after a 9-0 run. Alba entered the foul bonus midway through the first quarter and Hunter dunked it off a high post pick. Byars kept pacing Alba with back-to-back mid-range jumpers to give Alba the lead in the series, 13-5. Jeter fed Pinkney for a power layup but Sekulic scored in the low post and an unstopable Byars buried a three-pointer to boost the hosts' lead to double digits, 18-7. Hapoel kept struggling to score and an uncontested layup by Sekulic made it a 13-point game, 20-7, after 10 minutes. Simmons sank a jumper early in the second quarter, as Hapoel improved its defense and tried to open the floor with Sharon Shason at power forward. Dijon Thompson found his first points one a six-meter jumper that brought the guests within 20-11. Lucca Staiger, on court for the first time in a Eurocup game, struck from downtown but Hunter scored in the paint and Jeter added an acrobatic layup to make the hosts call timeout at 23-15. Hapoel had entered the foul bonus and could not play with the same intensity now. Yuval Naimy and Philip Zwiener traded layups and Simmons nailed a seven-meter bomb to tie the series, 26-20. Chubb stepped up with a backdoor layup and Wright sank free throws for a 30-20 Alba lead. McElroy scored in penetration but Hunter and Simmons got Hapoel within 32-24. McElroy kept pacing Alba with a floating jumper and Sekulic scored in transition to force Hapoel to call timeout at 36-24. Jeter sank a triple and split free throws to get Hapoel within 36-28 at halftime.

Pooh Jeter  - Hapoel JerusalemDojcin nailed a three-pointer immediately after the break, as Alba played with better intensity in defense. Hapoel went scoreless for more than 2 minutes until Naimy struck from downtown for a 39-31 deficit. Byars took over with his third triple, as Alba kept dominating the game with outstanding defense, forcing Hapoel to get off-balance shot at the end of each possession. Hapoel struggled to find a go-to guy and a layup by McElroy forced the guests to call timeout at 44-31. Naimy tried to change things with a big three-pointer, as Hapoel tried twin point guards with him and Yogav Ohayon together on court. Chubb scored down low and Wright buried a three-pointer to boost Alba's lead to 49-35. Thompson made free throws but a three-pointer by Hamann made it a 15-point game, 52-37, after 30 minutes. Pinkney stepped up with a backdoor layup early in the fourth quarter and Jeter added a corner triple to bring Hapoel back to life, 52-42. Chubb got the crowd involved with a layup that Simmons bettered with a three-pointer. Byars provided a highlight with a three-point play but a jumper by Jeter kept Hapoel within 57-47. Hamann sank free throws that Thompson erased with a layup in transition, good for a 59-49 score with over 4 minutes left. Chubb kept pacing Alba with back-to-back layups that Jeter matched with 4-of-4 free throws, but Hapoel only managed to trade baskets now. Jeter shined with a fast break layup, however, to get Hapoel within 63-55 with 2 minutes left. Chubb hit free throws and added a critical layup to seal the outcome of the series, 69-57, with 41.6 seconds left. Hapoel kept trying but all Alba fans at the O2 World were already celebrating that their team had sealed its ticket to the Eurocup Finals!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Eurocupbasketball.com
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Referees: GARCIA, JOSE RAMON; GARCIA, JUAN CARLOS; MIKHAYLOV, SERGEY
Attendance: 14500 (Tentative)
By Quarter1234
Alba Berlin20161620
Hapoel Jerusalem721922
End of Quarter1234
Alba Berlin20365272
Hapoel Jerusalem7283759
Alba Berlin
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
4 BYARS, DERRICK 30:41 16 3/3 3/6 1/1   4 4 1 2 1     3 5 21
6 HAMANN, STEFFEN 18:00 5 0/2 1/2 2/2   1 1 3 2     1 3 2 6
7 ZWIENER, PHILLIP 10:43 2 1/3     1   1 1 1 1     2 1 1
8 DOJCIN, DRAGAN 27:46 3 0/1 1/2     2 2 1 1       2   3
10 SEKULIC, BLAGOTA 17:07 6 3/5 0/1     1 1     1     1 2 4
12 WRIGHT, RASHAD 30:23 12 1/4 1/4 7/8   3 3 3 1 2     2 4 12
14 CHUBB, ADAM 19:09 14 6/7   2/2 1 1 2 1         1 4 19
15 NALGA, CEMAL 5:15   0/1                     2   -3
16 SEIFERTH, ANDREAS DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
23 McELROY, IMMANUEL 33:10 11 4/7 0/2 3/4   4 4 6 1       4 3 15
24 STAIGER, LUCCA 7:46 3   1/2     1 1       1   2   2
Team           4 2 6               6
Totals 200:00 72 18/33 7/19 15/17 6 19 25 16 8 5 1 1 22 21 86
        54.5% 36.8% 88.2%
Head coach: PAVICEVIC, LUKA
Min: Minutes played; Pts: Points; 2FG M-A: 2-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); 3FG M-A: 3-point Field Goals (Made-Attempted); FT M-A: Free Throws (Made-Attempted); Rebounds: O (Offensive), D (Defensive), T (Total); As: Assists; St: Steals; To: Turnovers; Bl: Blocks (Fv: In Favor / Ag: Against); Fouls: Cm (Commited), Rv (Received); PIR: Performance Index Rating
Hapoel Jerusalem
  Rebounds Blocks Fouls
# Player Min Pts 2FG 3FG FT O D T As St To Fv Ag Cm Rv PIR
5 LAZAR, BEN DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 KOKIA, URI 7:15         1   1           3 1 -1
7 SHASON, SHARON 7:32     0/1                   1   -2
8 PINKNEY, KEVINN 21:45 7 2/2 1/2   2 1 3     2     3 1 5
9 SIMMONS, TRE 33:20 10 2/6 2/7     4 4 2 1 4     2 2 4
10 NAIMY, YUVAL 32:49 8 1/3 2/3     1 1 4 2 1   1 3 1 8
11 LYONS, LEO DNP - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
12 THOMPSON, DIJON 26:25 7 2/3 0/2 3/4 1 5 6 1   2 1   4 5 10
13 OHAYON, YOGEV 9:32   0/1       1 1 1   1     1 1  
15 JETER, POOH 31:55 19 4/6 2/6 5/6 1 4 5 4   1     1 6 25
21 HUNTER, BRANDON 29:27 8 2/5   4/4 2 5 7     1     3 5 13
Team           1 1 2               2
Totals 200:00 59 13/26 7/21 12/14 8 22 30 12 3 12 1 1 21 22 64
        50% 33.3% 85.7%
Head coach: GOODES, GUY

Head Coaches

PAVICEVIC, LUKA
Alba Berlin
"I congratulate my players on achieving a very high goal of this season. My team tonight came up with a serious game, even knowing that we were without two very important players, Jenkins and Golemac. In this game, every member of the team showed his heart together with his brain, which was needed over 40 minutes in order be bring a 13-point win. I think that our crowd today was our sixth player. They made Alba Berlin have one of its best basketball nights in Europe. Alba Berlin succeeded to control a very dangerous, offensively skilled opponent, which averages 85 points in the Eurocup. We managed to bring this opponent to a game in which they could not run this kind of game. We put them under 70 points in their home and under 60 in our home. For this, my players had to be highly disciplined, highly energetic and highly focussed to control the main aspects of the game, and not only defensively. For this victory, a lot of self-discipline, a lot of control, a lot of energy and a lot of smarts were required."
GOODES, GUY
Hapoel Jerusalem
"Congratulations to Alba and Coach Pavicevic. They deserved to qualify for the Eurocup Finals. I think the story of the game for us was how we started the first and third quarters. Alba opened the game very aggressive and very strong. They stopped us with their defense. We scored only seven points in the first quarter and started also the third quarter very bad, with only nine points. I think that in the statistics we find nothing extreme, unless we got 12 turnovers and Alba only 5. But basically the first and third quarters wrote the story of the game. Alba deserves the victory, also because they manage to do this good job even without their best player, Julius Jenkins."

Players

BYARS, DERRICK
Alba Berlin
"I am very happy because we are going to the Eurocup Finals. Hapoel was a tough opponent, just as we expected. We know we would need a great team effort to win the series - and that is what we did. The key to our success was being able to keep the pace and control the game. We controlled the game rhythm for the entire 40 minutes, had no ups and downs and played really great defense."
JETER, POOH
Hapoel Jerusalem
"Congratulationss to Alba, they did what they had to do in their great arena. We need to keep our heads up and get ready for the Israeli League. Even when we didn't make it to the Finals, I think we did a very good job in our Eurocup season. I wish we could have done better in tonight's game, but we also have to give credit to Alba, that played really well tonight."
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