Hapoel Jerusalem punched their ticket to the semifinals with an 86-61 win over Bnei Herzliya and win their quarterfinal series 3-1. With the victory, the capital city reds will now tip-off against Hapoel Tel Aviv in a best-of-3 tilt for the right to play for the Israeli league championship.

Aleksandar Dzikic’s team jumped out a huge 29-11 lead after ten minutes as Levi Randolph and Speedy Smith kept finding the basket, but Chris Babb, Maurice Kemp and Julian Gamble started chipping away at the advantage. However, points from from Khadeen Carrington sent the visitors into halftime with a 49-29 lead.

Babb started to score in bunches while Yair Kravits also found points to pull Oren Aharoni’s squad to within just 3-points, 60-57 but Carrington came out like a man possessed in the final frame to end the series as he scored at will to send the Reds into the semifinals.

Carrington led the way with 26 points, Smith added 22 points while Randolph scored 20 points in the win. Babb paced the hosts with 26 points, Gamble scored 11 points and Kemp chipped in with 10 points in the loss.

“Too many ups and downs, I’m not satisfied,” Dzikic said. “We beat them by 25 points, but I’m not satisfied. This is not enough for the next round. We will see what will happen in the second round. It’s not about going up and down but the way you go up and down. I understand honest mistakes, but too many points were a lack of pure focus. I think Hapoel Tel Aviv is a super talented team with a good lineup of Israelis and a very good lineup of foreign players who are gamers and will be super ready. I’m not sure if we play like today it will be enough. It’s just pure fact.”

“Despite the tough disappointing feeling of losing, we felt that we were able to stay with Jerusalem but the depth decided this series,” Aharoni said. “Jerusalem had very high shooting percentage in this game but we were able to come back as our character showed but ultimately their three guards played an incredible game. Between Randolph hitting a crazy shot and Speedy Smith scoring as well to Khadeen Carrington, Jerusalem is an excellent team. We deserved to be in the playoffs the last two seasons but we fell short at the end of the day.”

Khadeen Carrington looked back at his performance and that of the team, “Not bad at all, 26 points in 21 minutes but I didn’t have a good series. Coach played me and trusted me and when I wasn’t scoring I tried to bring it on defense. Other guys also stepped up and it was a team effort. We made a lot of mistakes that we aren’t used to doing and a better team will take advantage of that. We definitely could have played better.”

Julian Gamble spoke about the game that was as well as the past season, “This game was an epitome of our season. We had some ups and downs all season long as was this game and ultimately we ran out of gas. Seven players against the best defensive team in the league is tough. We know that only one team can win the championship, I see this as a journey which was successful along with the memories that we create are what will last from this past season.”

Chris Babb went from the outside and inside for Bnei Herzliya while Levi Randolph did the same and TJ Cline scored a pair in the paint to give Hapoel Jerusalem an early 11-7 lead midway through the first quarter. Or Cornelius and Speedy Smith went from downtown, Randolph also found the basket, but Smith with another pair of triples to give the Red a 29-11 lead after ten minutes of play.

Noam Yaacov began the second quarter with a long deuce, but Maurice Kemp with a couple of baskets, Babb with a 3-point play and a 4-point play along with a bucket by Julian Gamble helped Oren Aharoni’s team pull to within 36-25 with six minutes left in the first half. Gamble dunked and added points inside, Khadeen Carrington and Randolph came back with jumpers, Carrington then drilled home a comer 3-ball, Zach Hankins scored as did Cline to bump the advantage back up to 20 points, 49-29 at halftime.

Babb from deep, Yair Kravits from inside and Gamble with a 3-point play got Herzliya off to a quick start in the third quarter, Babb hit a turnaround fadeaway jumper and Kemp went from deep to cut the lead down to 52-45 midway through the period. Kravits went in for a layup, Smith and Quinton Hooker traded 3-pointers, Hankins put in a bucket, Randolph nailed a triple at the end of the shot clock but Kravits responded to pull the hosts to within 60-57 after thirty minutes of action.

Carrington took the game on himself as he went gliding to the hoop for a 3-point play and then added a deuce, Hooker hit a pull up jumper, Carrington scored another pair of buckets and Smith went from way downtown to put Aleksandar Dzikic’s team in full control with a 72-59 lead and five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Carrington striped the ball and went in for a dunk, Gamble scored in the paint, Carrington put in a floater and added a triple while Smith also scored to wrap up the win and the series.