Eurocup Basketball: Bnei Hasharon routed by Turkey's Ankara at home in Eurocup opener

Suffer 76-54 home thrashing at the hands of Turk Telecom Ankara in its Eurocup debut in Ra'anana.

By ALLON SINAI
bnei hasharon 88 (photo credit: )
bnei hasharon 88
(photo credit: )
Bnei Hasharon was taught a painful lesson on Tuesday night, suffering a 76-54 home thrashing at the hands of Turk Telecom Ankara in its Eurocup debut in Ra'anana. Ariel Beit-Halachmi's team is hoping to challenge for a top two finish in its group, which also includes Greek clubs Aris Thessaloniki and Panellinios BC, but if Tuesday's game is anything to go by the side faces an almost impossible task. Bnei Hasharon was completely outplayed by the Turkish league leader and at no stage threatened Ankara. "We played a better team tonight and we can have no complaints," Beit-Halachmi said. "Ankara defended superbly and sadly this is the result." Ugonna Onyekwe led the hosts with 12 points, with Richard Roby the only other Bnei Hasharon player to score in double-figures, contributing 10 points. Serkan Erdogan scored 15 points in 20 minutes for Ankara. Ankara opened the game with an 8-2 run, but an Onyekwe three-pointer to end the first period brought the hosts within two points (14-12). Despite a 13-2 Turkish run to start the second period, Bnei Hasharon managed to remain in touch at the break, cutting the deficit to eight points (35-27). The hosts still believed they had a chance with 10 minutes to play, entering the fourth quarter down by nine points (54-45), but a 20-3 Ankara run ended any hope Bnei Hashron may have had and the team crashed to a humbling defeat. Next week Bnei Hasharon visits Aris Thessaloniki, which defeated Panellinios 71-69 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Hapoel Jerusalem hosts Arik Shiback's MyGuide Amsterdam in its EuroChallenge opener. Jerusalem also faces Olympia Larissa of Greece and EWE Baskets Oldenburg of Germany in the group stage and should have no trouble progressing in Europe's third tier competition, with the top two from each of the eight groups advancing to the last 16.