Hapoel Tel Aviv clipped Hapoel Gilboa Galil 103-95 as Antonio Blakeney and Tomer Ginat filled the basket to hand the reds the game one win. Antonio Blakeney scored at will, Ish El-Amin and Niv Misgav countered to stay close, Tomer Ginat found points a plenty in the third quarter while Elijah Childs and Paul Scruggs countered to stay within a pair of points heading into the final frame, but Ginat has Blakeney kept scoring to finish off the game.

Ginat scored 26 points, Blakeney added 24 points while Bingham and Timor each scored 11 points in the win. Misgav scored 19 points, Childs put in 18 points as Scruggs and Lavy each scored 13 points in the loss.

“We looked a bit rusty after not having played in about nine days,” Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis began. “We found a way to grab the 1-0 and they gave us a good fight which was good for us. They hit some tough shots and played well. We can be better and we will get better. We are first in the league and I will keep saying that after we lost the point from last season.”

“We did what we wanted to do in this game and we kept to close throughout,” Hapoel Gilboa Galil Head Coach Sharon Avrahami began. “We were able to bring down the score a few times when it bumped up to 8-9 points, but Blakeney, who is a player we haven’t seen in this country in a long time needs to be double teamed or else he will keep scoring. At the end of the day we were unable to find a way to win.”

Oz Blayzer looked back at the win, “This was a good game and we need to do a better job and now we have to go to the next one. We knew it was going to be aggressive game and we expected it as they were the underdog and it’s the playoffs.”

Elijah Childs reflected on the game, “We felt we came out with the aggressiveness and we kept them off the offensive rebound which is something that we did. We were also able to run but against a team like this a couple of mistakes and they can score quickly. We have a lot of things going for us including the point guard and scorers but we will need to be better next game.”

Tomer Ginat and Antonio Blakeney got things rolling for Hapoel Tel Aviv, Elijah Childs and Ish El-Amin countered for Hapoel Gilboa Galil, Marcus Foster and Bar Timor went from deep, Niv Misgav, Gur Lavy and Josh Price responded, Guy Palatin dialled up long distance but a pair of free throws from El-Amin gave the visitors a 27-25 lead after ten minutes of play.

Misgav opened the second quarter with a deuce, Marcus Bingham went from deep, Paul Scruggs and Childs came back with points, Blakeney scored from the line, Johnathan Motley scored inside, Ginat and Scruggs traded buckets, Blakeney went in for a 3-point play and Noam Yaacov scored to give the Reds a 51-47 advantage at halftime.

Blakeney continued with the hot hand to begin the third quarter, Ginat went for a pair from downtown, Lavy, Childs and Roie Netzia responded, Palatin went from the outside, Ginat continued to score to open up a 9-point lead but Netzia, Price and Misgav all hit their shots as did Scruggs to pull to within 2-points, 79-77 after thirty minutes of action.

Timor scored to get the fourth quarter underway, Scruggs hit a turnaround, Ginat again went from deep, Bingham put down a pair of dunks, Price put in a 3-point play, Blakeney and Ginat scored, Childs and Misgav tried to keep Gilboa hanging around but Timor responded to help Hapoel to the game one victory.