Nes Ziona picked up their first win of the season as they disposed of Hapoel Gilboa Galil 101-83 thanks to an all-star performance by Bryce Brown. Amit Sherf’s team went on a 20-0 run in the first half and then used a strong third quarter led by Brown, Ricky Lindo and Yair Kravits to put the game to bed and move their record to 1-3 on the season.

Brown scored 33 points, Lindo added 16 points while Kravits answered Jake Van Tubbergen both scored 15 points in the win. Jon Davis and Ish El Amin scored 16 points a piece in the loss.

“We came in with the right attitude but they hit some tough 3-pointers with hands in their faces and it took us a few minutes to get into the swing of things,” Nes Ziona head coach Amit Sherf began. “But once we changed some lineups and Gilboa committed turnovers we were able to score off of transition and gained confidence from there. But we have to keep improving. Even when they started to come back we didn’t panic, we ran and made our plays and the key was is that we have to take every possession as it was our last.”

“There were a lot of ups and downs with two big runs from Nes Ziona,” Gilboa head coach Sharon Avrahami began. “29 turnovers was the sturdy of the game as they scored 44 points off of that. It’s impossible to win like that, I will keep giving the Israelis chances to play no matter what the situation is and the teams that we are facing. Things at Gilboa are good but we have to make some adjustments to be better.”

The MVP Bryce Brown spoke about the victory, “This game was much different with our intensity and attention to detail. This was the best game we had. We found a rhythm on defense and that led to easy points on transition. We fought hard, rebounded the ball, played very unselfish and got the win.”

Roie Netzia looked back at the game, “We really had issues with the turnovers and also one on one defense. They were able to score some easy points and we have to work on that for the next game. I bring a lot of energy and that’s what I’ll always do. Hopefully that will translate in the next games as well.”

Lotan Amsalem, Gur Lavy and Ish El-Amin all went from deep for Hapoel Gilboa Galil to get the game underway, Ricky Lindo, Jake Van Tubbergen, Bryce Brown and Tzuf Ben Moshe scored for Nes Ziona to take a slim 21-20 lead after ten minutes of play. Ben Moshe went from deep, Darnell Edge scored off an inbounds play and Lindo dunked to begin the second quarter on fire, Jon Davis broke a 20-0 Nes Ziona run from downtown, Ben Moore put in a pair of buckets, Amsalem and Josh Aldrich dialled up long distance to pull the visitors to within 40-37 at halftime.

El Amin went from deep to get the third quarter underway, Brown and Segev responded, Yair Kravits nailed a corner 3-ball and Lindo added a deuce, Brown went from beyond the arc, as Kravits with two more triples along with points from Edge and Segev bumped the Nes Ziona lead up to 74-59 after thirty minutes of action. Brown drilled yet another one from deep to open the fourth quarter, Lindo and Van Tubbergen added points, Davis, El Amin, Moore and Lavy came back with points but Brown closed out the game to help the hosts to their first win of the campaign.

Bnei Herzliya used a huge fourth quarter to get by Maccabi Ramat Gan 88-86. Ramat Gan was cruising to what looked like another league victory, but a 33-13 final frame led by Jimmy Clark helped the hosts snatch the win. Clark scored 26 points and John Meeks added 16 points in teh victory while Kendale McCullum scored 20 points in the loss.

The MVP Jimmy Clark spoke about the win, “Coach Yehu Oralnd was telling us we needed to play harder, it came down to manning up. Our team chemistry is good and the ups and downs are what builds relationships.”