Record-setting David Holston helps Dijon stun Jerusalem on the road

JERUSALEM (Israel) - JDA Bourgogne Dijon snapped a six-game losing streak by French teams playing in Israel in the Basketball Champions League with an 84-77 win over Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem to kick off their Round of 16.

Turning point: There was little separation between the two teams through the first half, as the biggest lead was only 8 points for Dijon early in the second quarter. Jerusalem had regained a brief 38-35 lead, but Dijon closed the half on an 11-3 run to take a 46-41 lead.

Like the previous two quarters, Dijon narrowly won the third quarter 21-20 and held a 67-61 heading into the final ten minutes. Jerusalem got to within four points on a couple of occasions but didn't get enough stops to overcome Dijon.

Game heroes: David Holston and Gavin Ware were in sync all game, as Holston assisted on several of Ware's buckets.

Holston finished with a 20-point, 13-assist double-double along with 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Holston now has at least 10 assists in four straight BCL games, as many as in his first 56 appearances. He also now has five games with 15+ points and 10+ assists, tied for the most in the history of the BCL with Marcelinho Huertas who also has five. This was, however, his first league game with 20+ points and 10+ assists.

The 36-year-old also made history as the first BCL player with 700+ points, 350+ assists and 100+ steals.

The records continue, as Holston is now second in assists in BCL history with 374, fourth in scoring with 757 points and the first player to reach 100 steals.

Ware was the game's top scorer with 24 points along with 7 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench. After making all 10 of his shot attempts in his last game, he shot 11-of-13 from the field tonight and also had a game-high efficiency of 31.

Stats don't lie: Dijon only outrebounded Jerusalem 8-7 on the offensive glass, but they had some timely offensive rebounds in crunch time that extended possessions and also allowed Jerusalem fewer opportunities at their end. Dijon also had better than a 3:1 assist to turnover ratio (28-9).

Bottom line: Dijon begin 1-0 in the Round of 16 Group I and the French club will host their rivals from France, SIG Strasbourg (1-0), in their next game on Wednesday February 1.

Jerusalem fall to 0-1 in the group, and they were led by Zach Hankins who finished with a double-double (his third double-double in the BCL) of 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Israeli club will next travel to face Hapoel Atsmon Holon (0-1) in the battle of Hapoels on Wednesday February 1.

They said: "Today was a really good game for us. I think we came out and executed offensively and defensively. We still have more work to do, and we have to stay humble about this win and just keep moving forward." - Gavin Ware, JDA Bourgogne Dijon

"It's never easy to play in those kinds of gyms against good teams like Jerusalem. It was important that the good minutes were the majority of the game, and the bad minutes were not so much. We need to keep working because every next game is even more important." - Nenad Markovic, Head Coach JDA Bourgogne Dijon

"A pretty bad game from us and the most upsetting part was that it was at home. We need to increase energy and play a lot more energized. That's the main part about the game, not X and Os."  - Mareks Mejeris, Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem

"There is no mystery. Our energy was not on a level that we need to play in order to win against this type of team with ball-handlers and athletic bigs. Simply I believe that we should play harder, tougher and braver." - Aleksandar Dzikic, Head Coach Hapoel Bank Yahav Jerusalem