Ulm downed Badalona 87-83 to move to 2-0 early on in the EuroCup season and once again Israeli Ben Saraf was at the forefront of the win helping his side in crunch time to record the victory.

Throughout the season, Moshe Halickman, who has been covering Ben Saraf since 2021 for the Hebrew side of the Sports Rabbi website will now analyze the Israeli’s performances from a different point of view and from a fun angle in English too! But to find out what his final rating was you’ll need to read all the way until the end of the column.

Unfortunately, I was not able to see the start of Ben Saraf’s game against Joventut in Badalona because I was in a bomb shelter due to the Iranian missile attack on Israel. But when I got out, it turned out I hadn’t missed much. However, although Ulm was in the lead Saraf was far from his best and hadn’t even scored yet as he had 0 points. Even by the end of the third quarter, with just 3 points, it was far, far from being one of Saraf’s better games to say the least.

But then and not for the first time for Saraf in the Eurocup, he exploded in the fourth quarter. Despite a rough night, head coach Ty Harrelson once again gave the Israeli the keys to the car in money time and miraculously the bench boss was rewarded for his faith in Saraf. In fact, the first time Saraf got on the scoreboard in the final frame was with 5:04 left in the game as he hit a 3-pointer. At this point, one could say that Saraf did his job and the game would go down as being just fine.

But it didn’t end there.

Saraf made a big move for bucket-and-one but then missed a three-pointer and when it seemed that this could be defined as a good game even if not exceptional, he put a massive dunk deep in the last minute to almost close out the victory.

Was he finished? Nope.

Badalona cut down the lead to just 4-points with a triple but Saraf outdid his first dunk seconds earlier with yet another thundering jam which finally put the game out of reach against the team that defeated Hapoel Tel Aviv just last week.

This is the same player who, when analysts and scouts try hard to look for his shortcomings say that he is not a great athlete? It looks like he put those critics to bed.

Saraf finished with 15 points, 12 of which were in the fourth quarter, when he once again showed his composure and balanced decision-making in moments of pressure to score a rating of 9. As you may recall, in the win over Trefl Sopot in Ulm’s EuroCup opener in which he notched a huge 17 point and 10 assist double-double en route to an overtime victory, Saraf scored 13 points in the fourth quarter.

בן שרף כיכב הערב לעיני בראד סטיבנס 👀 https://t.co/OC11xZP5lx pic.twitter.com/0k0JD26b7A

— Moshe Halickman משה הליקמן (@mobluelion) October 1, 2024

But the difference this time is that not only was the performance in front of his home crowd, it was also in the presence of none other than Brad Stevens, the President of Basketball Operations for the Boston Celtics, next to whom sat Benas Matkevicius, the European scout of the NBA champion. It’s so much fun to see the responsibility that Saraf takes upon himself in the moment of truth even on days when he’s not doing well, as we saw in the club’s home win over Würzburg in the German League.

After the game, Saraf gave his sneakers to a young fan, showing once again that he is above all a good human being.

בן שרף מסר את הנעליים שלו לאוהד צעיר בסיום המשחק🤝💪 pic.twitter.com/QgWXTr2eps

— Sports Rabbi (@thesportsrabbi) October 1, 2024

It was interesting to hear Harrelson at the postgame press conference talking about how the young players have led the team to victories over the past several contests. However, he also surprisingly criticized the team’s other burgeoning talent, Frenchman Noa Essengue for a mistake he made but did add some positives about the player’s improved his body language. Don’t worry, there were no complaints about Saraf at any stage of the presser.

Ulm is now a perfect 2-0 in the EuroCup and an equally 2-0 perfect in the German League while Saraf is averaging 16 points per game in continental play at only 18 years old; the dream continues. On what was a very difficult evening across the Holy Land, Saraf was there once again to bring immense pride to all of the basketball fans in Israel.