Hapoel Jerusalem downed Hapoel HaEmek 82-71 to take a 1-0 lead in their best-of-3 quaterfinal series. Justin Smith score early and often in the win as the reds will now try to close out the series up in Gan Ner on Tuesday.

HaEmek grabbed an early lead thanks to fine play by Nick Ogenda, but Justin Smith scored multiple highlight reel baskets and Jared Harper also filled the bucket to push Hapoel Jerusalem in front 18-16 after ten minutes of play. Ogenda dunked at will while Brandon Johnson and Gil Noyovitch also scored but Harper, Smith and Isaiah Mobley all responded however, points from Rafi Menco and Max Brooks put Sharon Avrahami’s squad ahead 39-35 at halftime.

Jerusalem opened the third quarter with a trio of triples as Khadeen Carrington scored from deep, while Xavier Sneed put down an alley-oop and went from downtown while Smith dunked and Tzuf Ben Moshe buried a pair from beyond the arc to give Yonatan Alon’s team a 65-48 lead. Menco and Ogenda cut the lead down to 70-67 midway through the final frame but Smith and Roi Huber found the bottom of the basket while Mobley nailed a corner 3-ball to close out the game.

Smith scored 21 points, Carrington put in 13 points and Harper added 11 points in the victory while Ogenda scored 16 points and Rafi Menco chipped in with 14 points in the loss.

Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon looked back at the win, “There were no real surprises and we were ready for them. We needed make sure that we were able to win this game, but we came out flat in the first quarter. We didn’t move the ball around well enough but we corrected that in the second half. We will need to do what we did the last couple of games in order to close out the series on the road.”

HaEmek Head Coach Sharon Avrahami spoke about the defeat, “This was similar to the last game we played and we should have been ahead by ten points at the half. Jerusalem really took control in the second half and we need to look at the video and try to get ready for game two. We hope Kyler Edwards will be able to play next game as he has a hamstring issue which Niv Misgav has and he did play in this game.”

Xavier Sneed spoke about the win, “Hard fought game and we kept home court, we had tough time to start off but we paid attention to the details and we ere able to adjust. We weathered the storm and defense wins championships. We need to get off to a better start, the last two games we didn’t start well so we need to work on that.”

Gil Noyovitch reflected on the loss, “We played well in the first half and we were there. We made a good comeback but it wasn’t enough, in the third quarter our aggressiveness went down and we will need that to win the second game back at home. We hope everyone will be available next game and we will need to make the correct adjustments.”