Hapoel Beer Sheva slipped by Bnei Herzliya 77-75 thanks to David Efiyani’s late bucket to break a 75-75 tie and take the hard earned road win despite Chris Babb’s 32 points. Babb scored in bundles early to give the hosts the lead but Khalil Ahmad (17p), Efiyani (16p), Ben Moore (13p) and Igor Koulechov (12p) all helped snatch the win down the stretch.

“We were 1-4 coming into this game,” Koulechov explained. “Of those losses there were 2 games that we could have won. This game was close all the way to the end, but we made our stops despite having the worst defense in the league which is no secret. We worked on our defense and we watched video and did breakdowns, it didn’t look good and it was a matter of honor.”

Hapoel Eilat sunk Hapoel Gilboa Galil 94-82 as Ariel Beit Halachmi’s squad controlled the game from the opening tip and never looked back to take the win. Newcomers DJ Funderburk & Manu Lecomte made their impact felt immediately as both new additions scored 18 points a piece while the Belgian added 9 assists and 6 rebounds. Forward Eric Griffin scored 22 points & Netanel Artzi added 19 points in the win. Justin Gorham paced the hosts with 16 points and Josh Perkins chipped in with 15 points as Rami Hadar’s team committed 17 turnovers in the loss.

“We had some struggles before the break, but we brought in some new players and we said that we really had to lift ourselves up and give our all,” Netanel Artzi said following the game.

“We were soft and just didn’t care, this wasn’t what we had wanted. The effort was not enough and we are dealing with what we have. The problem is not the players but how we are playing,” a disappointed Gilboa Galil coach Rami Hadar said.