Hapoel Tel Aviv drubbed Hapoel Galil Elyon 108-80 as seven Reds scored in double figures and last year’s league MVP Chinanu Onuaku made his Reds debut in a lopsided affair. Danny Franco’s squad jumped out to an early 35-24 after ten minutes of play lead as the big men, Idan Zalmanson and Onuaku scored at will while Xavier Munford distributed the ball with ease to the team record 33 assists in the victory. Zalmanson and Jordan McRae each scored 20 points, Onuaku and Jaylen Hoard added 16 points a piece as Xavier Munford scored 10 points and dished out 11 assists. Deishuan Booker led Galil Elyon with 19 points and 9 assists, Jalen Hudson scored 17 points and Bryce Washington added 10 points in the loss.

“I looked as to how we would split up the minutes properly in the game,” Franco said after the contest. “We didn’t have J’Covan Brown for the most part which allowed the team a chance to play without him which will be the case at some point in the season and it was able to give the rest of the team confidence to know how to handle the situation properly.”

Nes Ziona downed Bnei Herzliya 91-84 as Shaq Buchanan and Tyler Bey combined for 57 points for the hosts in the win. Elad Hasin’s team jumped all over the visitors early on, but Chris Babb and Maurice Kemp helped Oren Aharoni’s squad knot the score up at 63 by the end of the third quarter. However, Buchanan along with Golan Gutt came up big down the stretch in a game that saw DJ Cooper dish out 19 assists to take the win.

Buchanan led the way with 30 points, Bey added 27 points while Golan Gutt scored 9 points in the victory. Babb paced struggling Herzliya with 21 points, Kemp chipped in with 17 points and Sandy Cohen scored 16 points in the loss.

Tyler Bey also looked back at the contest, “I was just playing my game, we played as team and we got the job done. Shaq Buchanan came off of the bench and gave us a spark and it’s really amazing to play with DJ Cooper.”

“Credit to the players,” Hasin began. “Herzliya is a good team with a good coach and it’s always tough to play them. We showed a lot of character and focus and we had a lot of good shots which is a good sign going forward.

“It’s no secret that we are having issues” Aharoni explained. “We have had home losses at the buzzer as well and whole we did a decent job in this game, Nes Ziona came out with the win. We had two very serious injuries and it’s hard to handle these types of things.”