Hapoel Holon defeated Maccabi Ramat Gan 77-67 as Mike Davis was on fire from the outside and Justin Alston scored with ease on the inside to take the win. The purples came out scoring as Netanel Artzi, Justin Alston and Davis did the damage early on but Drew Crawford, Roi Huber and Kendale McCullum helped the visitors to a 43-42 lead at halftime. However, Alston started to take control of the inside while Davis kept pumping in one 3-pointer after the next from the outside to spur the hosts to 10-point win.

Davis scored 22 points, Alston added 20 points and Artzi put in 9 points in the win. McCullum and Crawford each scored 14 points while Ariel put in 12 points in the loss.

“We weren’t comfortable out of the gate but we were able to play well in the second half to take the win,” Hapoel Holon Head Coach Guy Kaplan said. “We have a number of games coming up on the road and we have to come into every with positive energy and with our DNA.”

“You can’t win the game when you turnover the ball 17 times,” Maccabi Ramat Gan Head Coach Shmulik Brenner said. “We all have to be better and we need to see when some of the players will come back. But we are concerned on one hand but we also can’t sit here and cry about it.”

Iftach Ziv spoke about the win, “This was a very important win for us and we prepared for this game throughout the week. There have been a lot of changes in the roster for a number of reasons and it took time for us to jell together. I had a very good matchup with Roi Huber and we know one another very well.”

Adam Ariel looked back at the game that was, “It’s a disappointing loss and we knew how important this game was. We all know that we are a bit short handed but we fought and battled and stayed in the game. But ultimately we just didn’t have the energy at the end to take the win.”

Netanel Artzi and DJ Cooper found points early on for Holon while Drew Crawford and Adam Ariel countered for Maccabi Ramat Gan but Justin Alston’s strong play inside and Mike Davis’s outside shooting gave the purples a 23-15 lead after ten minutes of play. Roi Huber and Crawford went from deep while Kendale McCullum and Luther Muhammad scored, Davis came back with a trio of triples but a reverse layup from Dori Sahar and another Huber 3-pointer gave the visitors a 43-42 halftime advantage.

Holon big men Idan Zalmanson and Alston each went from deep, while the latter continued to find points in the paint, McCullum and Huber countered while Isaiah Miles and Davis traded triples but when the dust settled it was Guy Kaplan’s team that jumped in front 61-55 after thirty minutes of action. Alston and Michale Kyser scored to start off the fourth quarter, Ariel and Crawford tried to keep Shmulik Brenner’s squad close but two more 3-pointers by Davis closed out the game and the win for Holon.