Ulm just got by Ludwigsburg 63-62 in a home game that provided a huge amount of drama at the end of the German League contest as Ben Saraf’s team moved to 3-0 on the young season.

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.

The Good: Dealing with double-teams
Right from the get go, Saraf had to deal with a difficult challenge from Ludwigsburg’s head coach John Patrick as the visiting bench boss decided to double-team the Israeli point guard. However, the Sabra was up to the challenge and handled the situation well, including avoiding losing the ball late in the shot clock.

The Bad: Opening of the game
While Saraf did manage to handle the Patrick’s double-teams and he even managed to score a basket in the first quarter, it was only one bucket as he had a very difficult time along with his team in breaking down the Ludwigsburg game plan early on.

The Good: Leadership
Although he is only 18 years old, Saraf continued to show leadership as he was directing the traffic with his hands on the floor during the second quarter.

The Bad: Shooting
Saraf only went 3/9 from two and was again blocked several times, but that actually was positive after he shot 0/3 from beyond the arc. Sometimes Saraf forces his shots from 3-point land with the shot clock running down and when that occurred at the beginning of the fourth quarter head coach Ty Harrelson took him off of the floor.

The Good: Confidence
Even though Saraf sometimes forces things as mentioned above, his confidence is felt at every moment and that’s why Harrelson will have him on the court in crunch time during the decisive moments of the game.

The Bad: Lack of assists
Saraf who is the starting point guard recorded some nice assists, which of course we will expand on further on down but he only had a total of two for the game and we all know that he can distribute more, certainly in a game where he took 12 shots from the field.

The Good: The assists
Although I noted an issue in the amount of his assists that was not the case with the quality of them. Saraf dished out a pair of beautiful assists, including one on a fast break and the other with one hand en route to Marcio Santos’ dunk in money time.

The Good: Cutting inside
Saraf has a developed an incredible sense of the game, which is reflected in part in his ability to cut inside to receive the ball and finish inside, which he was able to do in the first quarter.

The Good: Rebounding
In less than 17 minutes on the floor, Saraf grabbed 4 defensive rebounds, a terrific amount for a guard.

The Good: Defense
On the defensive side, Saraf was able to contribute not only when it came to rebounding, but the players matched up against him were unable to score against him.

The Good: Money Time role
Saraf returned to the floor during money time once again with a few minutes remaining on the clock and helped his team win after they had been trailing by a point. As mentioned, he provided a beautiful assist to Santos which allowed Ulm to regain the lead, was able to draw an offensive foul by a Ludwigsburg player which snet the fans into pandemonium and added a bucket as he penetrated into the paint to put his team ahead by 3. His +6 was the highest on the team along with Santos which also says a lot of his play.

The Rating: 6
This was the second game German League game in a row that Saraf didn’t have to be at his best but was still able to contribute in a big way to the victory as Ulm avoided having to head into overtime following a foul on Justin Simon a one-time Bnei Herzliya player. After another great fourth quarter in the EuroCup against Joventut in Badalona, this time, in front of his family members in the stands, Saraf celebrated another victory with his team who are perfect across all competitions. Earlier on, legendary point guard Vasilis Spanoulis, who coached Saraf in the Euroleague’s youth tournament complimented him in an interview in Greece which shows just how much the Israeli is making an impact. Saraf’s next game will be played on the road against Wolves in Lithuania in EuroCup action this Tuesday (19:00) and we really, really, can’t wait.