Maccabi Ramat Gan dunked Nes Ziona 82-70 as five players scored in double digits including Chad Brown (14p), Adam Ariel (13p) and Terrell Brown (13p) and overwhelmed Yuri Collins (14p) and Jackson Rowe (13p) to notch the win.

Shmulik Brenner spoke about the victory, “We had five players in practice. My assistants said I was dreaming when I said we’d beat Ness Ziona. You can do anything if you believe. We are a completely new team, but there’s a great spirit here. Some players arrived just two days ago and gave everything on the court. That spirit won us the game, because it wasn’t a great basketball game. Our Israeli guys are very committed, they made sure from the very first moment to give the new foreign players a good feeling and make them feel at home. You can’t teach character.”

Hapoel HaEmek cruised past Hapoel Galil Elyon 96-66 as the hosts grabbed an early lead with Kyler Edwards (21p) and Max Brooks (15p) leading the charge while Justin James (15p) paced the visitors in the loss.

HaEmek Head Coach Sharon Avrahami summed up another big win for his squad, “A very important victory after a long break. We didn’t know how we would come in and perform. Cameron Henry was injured in his hand and barely played, which hurt us. Our character won the game, our defense and intensity were above everything. We played together and shared the ball on offense and that made the difference.

Maccabi Raanana outlasted Kiryat Ata 86-78 as the visitors who were led by Tyrece Radford and Lennard Freeman were took the lead early and held off a late rally by the hosts led by Wes Iwundu to notch the win. Radford scored 21 points and Freeman added 18 points while Iwundu scored 28 points.

Hapoel Holon got past Hapoel Beer Sheva 96-86 as the purples ran with a 6-man rotation due to injuries and were led by Netanel Artzi (28p) and Darin Green (16p) while Sam Iorio (20p) and Marquis Barnett (19p) paced the southern reds.