Basketball / Eurocup / Jerusalem spreads offense in solid opening victory

Hapoel Jerusalem displayed a balanced attack and Dijon Thompson dominated the paint as the Israeli club beat Lithuanian visitor Siauliai 89-76 in the opening contest of its 2009-10 Eurocup campaign. Four Hapoel players reached double figures with Tre Simmons leading with 19 points. Thompson added 18 and pulled in 11 rebounds to register a double-double.

Jerusalem won in convincing fashion against Lithuania's number-three club, taking the lead at 6-4 early in the first quarter and never relinquishing it. Siauliai tried to make it interesting, paring a 39-31 halftime deficit to five points at 61-56. However, different Hapoel players stepped up to rebuff every effort to make the game any closer.

Pooh Jeter scored nine of his 10 points in the final period, hitting a three-pointer early on and icing the game down the stretch. The scariest point came after Jerusalem pushed the lead to 73-63, as Siauliai's Derrick Low hit two consecutive trifectas in forty seconds to cut the lead to four points - forcing Jerusalem head coach Guy Goodes to call a time out with 4:28 left.

His troops regrouped as Kevinn Pinkney reeled off six straight points for Jerusalem and Simmons capped the 8-2 burst to restore the double-digit lead at 81-71 with 2:45 remaining.

Jeter and Yuval Naimy (five assists) then found Thompson on Hapoel's following two possession - the first on an alley-oop - to put the game out of reach.

Hapoel's next opponent, Aris Thessaloniki, won a close low-scoring battle yesterday with Croatian club Zadar 73-68. Zadar led early on before the Greek team chipped away at its lead and went ahead in the third quarter. Keydran Clark led Aris with 16 points, Nikos Hatzivrettas added 15. Haifa and Thessaloniki meet next Tuesday in Greece.