Itoudis Apologizes After Hapoel Tel Aviv’s Game 1 Loss to Maccabi

Hapoel Tel Aviv was beaten 90:80 by Maccabi Tel Aviv on Tuesday night in Game 1 of the Israeli championship playoff final, falling behind 1:0 in the best-of-series. The second game is scheduled for Thursday, and Hapoel will try to even the series there.

Hapoel coach Dimitris Itoudis said his team did not meet its standard. "I want to apologize to our fans," he said. "The team we were tonight is not the real Hapoel Tel Aviv, we are worth much more than this. Our fans deserve to see a better team and a more committed team. Maccabi was better tonight, it won deservedly, but we can turn the series around."

Asked about the roster for Game 2, Itoudis declined to reveal his plans. "We will not expose our plans, it is a secret, we prefer to keep our cards close to our chest," he said. "Otuoro and all the foreign players will train, and then on Thursday morning we will decide which foreigners will be registered."