Hapoel Tel Aviv crushed Elitzur Netanya 96-70 as Joe Ragland starred while mad king his Israeli league debut this season to help the Reds to the win. Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad has trouble early on by a game diamond city squad as Kyler Edwards paced the hosts while Joe Ragland controlled the offense and Bruno Caboclo scored inside for the visitors as they took a 50-40 lead at halftime. Guy Palatin drained four 3-pointers to get the third quarter underway while Tomer Ginat and Marcus Foster scored as well to close out the game.

Caboclo scored 19 points, Gjnat added 16 points and Ragland scored 15 points while dishing out 8 assists in the win. Edwards scored 26 points and Eric Romero put in 14 points in the loss.

Kyler Edwards and Carlos Marshall came storming out of the gate for Netanya, Joe Ragland, Tomer Ginat and Marcus Foster with a pair from deep countered for Hapoel Tel Aviv, while Bruno Caboclo scored inside to give the reds a 22-15 lead after ten minutes of play. Caboclo continued to dominate the paint as the second quarter began, Eric Romero and Roee Paretzky responded, Bar Timor put in points while Bryce Washington did the same at the other end but a Ragland layup gave Dimitrios Itoudis’s squad a 50-40 advantage at halftime.

Guy Palatin was on fire with a quartet of triples to get the third quarter off and running, but came out injured soon thereafter, Edwards and Itay Moskovits tried to keep Idan Avshalom’s team close, but more points from Ginat and Foster bumped the lead up to 74-54 after thirty minutes of action. Ragland, Timor, Antonio Blakeney and Oz Blayzer kept pouring in the points as Hapoel ran away with the victory.

“We came out and played serious against Netanya who have a young team,” Reds Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis began. “We only had one practice ahead of this game while they probably had 5-6 so they were able to bring in their youth and energy. We tried to control the pace of play in the game and we had 32 assists which showed that players like Jonathan Motley and Bruno Caboclo could be secondary creators as well and they added together 6-7 assists. This allowed us to have multiple ways to execute. We wanted to play serious defense and we managed to do so. We felt that this game was as if we were playing at home with a ton of fans and a great atmosphere.”

“I hope that Guy Palatin will be ok as he was great breaking the game open with 4 straight 3-pointers,” Netanya coach Idan Avshalom began. “We want to be more competitive. The league is really split into two with Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Hapoel Jerusalem in one group and the rest of the league in the other. Kyler Edwards was very good for us and I had an option to sign Qua Grant who ended up with Rishon Le’Zion and Kyler after Biden had come up with a ceasefire in the north. We chose Edwards and we are 2-2 since the break. We are playing well and we want to be even better going forward.”

Oz Blayzer reflected on the win, “We want to bring our best to every game and of course there is a adjustment between the Israeli league and the EuroCup. But there are no easy games in the domestic league, we were able to make it easy. Having Joe Ragland registered to play in the local league is great because he not only has played in this league before but also won a title.”

Kyler Edwards spoke about the game from his point of view, “We had a game plan and worked on it for the whole week. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. They brought all their fans here so it was like a home game for them and that was a big factor. In addition, you can see the difference between this team and Ramat Gan who plays in the BCL who we beat a few weeks ago. For me personally, so far it’s great being in Israel where it’s 70 degrees in December along with all the guys has been terrific as everyone has welcomed me with open arms.”

Nes Ziona dominated Hapoel Haifa 86-68 as Bryce Brown starred to help the hosts get back onto the winning track. Darnell Edge was hot early on for Nes Ziona while Jon Davis and Gil Noyovitch found points for Hapoel Haifa to stay close but Bryce Brown started to score at will from the outside and the inside while Ricky Lindo and Edge spurred the hosts to a 45-29 lead at halftime. Edge and Brown kept filling the basket, Tyler Bey and JaKeenan Gant tried to keep the Carmel reds hanging around, but Jerome Meyinsse, Lindo and Brown poured in points late to wrap up the game.

Brown scored 24 points, Lindo added 19 points and Edge scored 12 points in the win while Davis paced Haifa with 15 points in the loss.

“After the game against Hapoel Tel Aviv we had to get back to the basics,” Nes Ziona head coach Amit Sherf said. “Haifa is a team that puts a lot of pressure in you and is very intense so we really went after every ball that we could get our hands on from the jump. We were a bit stressed at the start but once we got over that we were able to take control of the game and I’m very happy that we took the win,”

“We weren’t able to get the offensive rebounds and we turned over the ball too many times. This led to us being punished at the other end. We also have issues with our ball handling and I’m sure with Matt Coleman returning he will help out and we are also looking for a combo guard ,” Haifa assistant coach Ilan Amar said following the game.

Ricky Lindo reflected on the win, “We wanted to get back to our defensive principles after the game against Hapoel Tel Aviv and we wanted to keep Haifa below their season averages. Like coach said after last game we have to stay focused on our goals at hand.”