Blakeney's 30 Points Not Enough for Hapoel Tel Aviv in EuroLeague Loss

Hapoel Tel Aviv suffered their second EuroLeague loss, falling 93-82 to Valencia on Thursday, dropping their record to 2-2. Despite a career-high 30 points from Antonio Blakeney, who shot an impressive 8-of-11 from three-point range, he was the only player to provide significant offensive output. Valencia controlled the game, at one point building a 19-point lead. Blakeney's late surge of three-pointers narrowed the gap to four, but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit.

Other key players struggled to contribute. Elijah Bryant scored 12 points, but Vasilije Micić managed only four points, and the player, despite dishing out nine assists, also scored just four points. Dan Otuoro recorded three blocks but committed four turnovers.

Blakeney acknowledged the team's shortcomings after the game, stating, "We played against a great team that played at a high pace and we didn't control the pace." He added, "We knew they would want to shoot from three, we strayed from the game plan and made many mistakes. We will watch the video and improve. We fought, we fell behind by double digits several times and came back and got closer to them and that's always a good thing."

Tai Odiase, who scored eight points, commented, "I don't think we didn't start the game well. They came out to play with a lot of energy and hit threes, they just felt too comfortable and went on transition attacks and we couldn't stop it. We played hard for two quarters on defense and made many substitutions, we played hard but clearly it wasn't enough."

The team is set to return to Israel on Friday and begin preparations for their Israeli League opener on Sunday against Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Notably, Bar Timor, who was on the roster, did not play. The team recently reached the Winner Cup final for the second consecutive year, with Israeli players contributing minimally in the semi-final, raising questions about their integration with foreign and naturalized players.