Hapoel Gilboa Galil downed Hapoel Jerusalem 85-58 and as they say in Hebrew it was “Lo Kochot”. Jerusalem was no match for Gilboa and their depth after the capital city side saw four of their foreigners leave the country during the security situation. Gordon’s team on the other hand not only have all of their imports but a strong Israeli corps of players as well with Iftach Ziv leading the way.

Ziv has been phenomenal all year long and for his efforts he was named the Israel Basketball Winner League Israeli Player of the Season along with earning a spot on the League’s Starting 5. After being named the “Corona League” MVP last year, the Blue & White guard made sure to build on the award and show that he was deserving of his standing on the big stage.

“Today I got the stamp of approval for the Corona League MVP winning the Israeli Player of the season,” Ziv excitedly said. “I am really happy and this was a milestone in my career that many people helped me to achieve. But it’s an individual award and we are a team. We have plenty of work to do.”

But for the Haifa native, it’s not just earning these awards it’s also about him maturing as a player and as a person. Watching the guard over the past six years one can see how much he has grown as he looks to continues to hone his trade and also understand what he needs to do to reach the top.

Although Ziv isn’t the captain, that job is divided up by Yotam Hanochi and Netanel Artzi, it’s the 25-year old who is the elder statesman of the Israeli continent and also a National Team player. “Being a veteran is a responsibility and also working on the relationships between the imports and Israelis is something that I have taken on. Being the connection between the players and the staff is also something that I am involved with.”

However, even with a deep bench, Ziv is aware that Gilboa still has to finish the job which they will try to do in game two in Jerusalem on Thursday night, “We will come and do what we need to and we have another game in two days.”

Jerusalem will try to avoid a two game sweep and as Suleiman Braimoh said they will have to go back and make the correct adjustments in order to record a victory in what is a do or die matchup. That however is not going to be an easy job to say the least especially with such short and inexperienced squad.

“I think we could have handled their aggressiveness a bit better and they really did what they wanted to offensively but there are issues with the quality of the squad in comparison,” Jerusalem coach Yonatan Alon explained following the game. “We need to play team basketball and pass the ball better.”

That’s gong to be a tall order for the Reds against a team that can go 10 players deep and one that is on a mission.

Ziv, who was rumored to be heading abroad or to Maccabi Tel Aviv last summer decided to stay put and continue his career in the quiet of Gan Ner where he was able to just concentrate on one thing; basketball.

Hooping it up is about all that Ziv has been busy with these days and he knows full well the more he keeps working on that, the more success he will have this coming summer. But right now he is thinking about only one thing, the championship.

“I hope that we can win some titles.”