Hapoel Tel Aviv got by a game Elitzur Netanya 75-66 to improve their record to13-1 to remain in first place overall in the Israeli league. Bar Timor, Tomer Ginat and Tai Odiase scored to open the game up well for Hapoel Tel Aviv, Otis Frazier, Or Cornelius and Kahliel Spear countered for Netanya, Johnathan Motley stated to put his mark on the game inside, but so did Spear as the visitors took a 40-32 advantage at halftime.

Yam Madar came out on firing on all cylinders from deep, Odiase scored points a plenty inside and Ginat also found the bottom of the basket, Spear and Shaq Buchanan countered, but baskets Timor and Odiase closed out the tough win for the reds. Madar scored 16 points, Odiase added 15 points, Ginat put in 14 points in the victory while Spear scored 16 points, and Frazier scored 13 points in the loss.

Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis, “It was tough and nothing in life is easy especially when you don’t put all the effort ton the floor. Three quarters were for us but the second quarter they were ahead of us in a number of aspects. We have to be consistent and we weren’t defensively in the second quarter. The team looks totally different between the first round and this round played very differently and they deserve an applause for that. They had time to prepare and we had to travel, but we like that we have this load.”

The Reds bench boss also spoke about the allegations against Antonio Blakeney, “First of all, we as a club and the player actually and everybody who’s involved with it, has much more knowledge and details about that. So, as you said, there are allegations and there are many other topics which I’m not the one who has to address that.

“We have full trust on the player. I have talked with the player, as also the teammates, he’s practicing serious. That’s old stories and whatever I say now might be used or not used, so better not to say. But there are clear things that had been addressed also when AB had signed firstly over here. So, we have no concerns in regards of the integrity, commitment and the sport ethic that AB has neither his teammates.”

Netanya Head Coach Eli Raby reflected on the game, “I’m very disappointed that we lost the game and we didn’t execute well in the second half. We need to collect wins, we lost and it doesn’t matter that it was close. However, we are optimistic about our situation going forward. We have to pick the guys up and get ready for the next game and win because that is what we need to do.”

Tai Odiase looked back at the win, “We didn’t come out well in the first half but we made the adjustments in the second half. Sometimes it’s tough to adjust after playing a difficult game on the road and in Europe. We have to take every game set we are all basketball players and we have to do our job no matter what, wether we play zero minutes Iorio forty minutes we have to be ready when your name is called.”

Kahliel Spear spoke about his team’s performance, “I like how we fought and played really well in the first half and has a bit of a leg down in the third but we fought and showed passion. We gave ourselves a chance and if we continue to play the way we did that will be very good for us in the second half. You try not to take consolation victories but we were able to compete against best team in Europe.”

Maccabi Ramat Gan defeated Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion 99-87 in overtime as Shmulik Brenner’s team made one of the all-time great late game comebacks to take the stunning win. With the score 78-69 in favor of Rishon Le’Zion with 1:26 left in regulation time a brawl broke out that saw a number of players ejected including Khalil Ahmad and DJ Burns from Rishon and Jordan Nicholas from Ramat Gan who were awarded 5 free throws that Freddy Bourdillon scored to pull the visitors to within 78-74.

From there Adam Ariel drilled home a 3-pointer as did Bourdillon to give Ramat Gan a 80-78 lead but Amin Stevens scored as time wound down to send the game into overtime. In the extra session, it was all Ramat Gan as Bourdillion scored at will while Ariel also added points to take the win. Ariel scored 23 points, Ronaldo Segu added 20 points and Bourdillion scored 16 points in the victory while Josh Freund scored 21 points and Qua Grant put in 20 points in the loss.