Elitzur Ramle captured the Israel Women’s Basketball Championship after defeating Harold Lev Jerusalem 84-60 to win their third title in a row with by a clean sweep. The hosts came into game three after just clipping the reds 95-94 in game two at the capital city and it was clear from the get go that the yellow-and-black had no interest in having to make a return trip for a fourth game.

Jessica Jackson, Jennie Simms, Tzlil Vaturi and MVP Eden Rotberg came out flying for Danny Gutt’s squad as the hosts took an insurmountable 44-23 halftime lead as they never looked back to run away with the win.

Rotberg scored 19 points, Jackson added 17 points and Simms checked in with a triple-double of 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists In the win. Breanna Richardson scored 20 points, Stashi Carey chipped in with 18 points and Baron scored 12 points in the loss.

Ramle head coach Danny Gutt who was soaked from head to toe following the game spoke about the victory, “I have been a part of many titles whether it was with David Blatt, Maccabi Tel Aviv, 3X3 Championships and others but this was the sweetest of them all because this was one was as a head coach and one that was for an entire season. We had a bit of a slump when we lost the Cup but we got over that and we came into the semifinals and finals with all of our strength. We deserved it as we were the #1 team throughout the entire season and we had to prove that in these six playoff games and that’s what we did.”

As for the keys to the win, Gutt had one word, “Defense, defense, defense and defense. We knew that in order to beat Jerusalem you have to keep their point total down and if we wanted to win a title it has to be via our defense, I’m happy that the team put in an incredible performance. Shir is very important for Jerusalem and she played very well on the forts two games as well as their bigs but you can’t close them all down. We wanted to shut down the paint and not allow them to get in there. But our squad left their heart on the court and winning the championship was the result.”

Jerusalem bench boss Limor Peleg who picked up the coach of the season award spoke about the game and wrapped up a successful campaign for the first year premier league squad, “Not the way we wanted to end the season but we gave it all we had. I don’t know what happened in this game and we all had a very long weekend, all of Israel did. I don’t know if we were tired. It was just going down 0-2 and I have no answers. Putting this game aside I am really proud of the team. They went above all expectations, of themselves, the club and the team. We won the State Cup, took second place and made it to the finals so I’m really proud of everything they did this year.”

The MVP Eden Rotberg was at a loss for words as to how excited she was to win the championship, “I’m super happy, this was amazing. From the first moment we came in to win and we deserved it. This was a crazy series and we expected that. I’m so proud of everyone. The Cup loss seemed to wake everyone up and it’s too bad that we lost that game but that’s sports and we were able to win this title. We worked super hard this season but I have to remind everyone that there are hostages being held in Gaza and that we are still at war. So I’m happy that we ere able to give people the chance to smile and enjoy some sports during this tough time.”

Jennie Simms who was incredible throughput the season also talked about the title, “It was a tough series but we stayed together. We’re an amazing team and a close team and we came out with the victory. We encouraged each other and we all understood that it could be anybody’s night at any time. After the Cup final loss there was a lot of noise around the league saying that we weren’t good enough and saying that we weren’t together and saying that other team’s were more together than we were. We proved that we didn’t listen to that noise and we stayed together as a family and when we do that we know what we could do.”

Breanna Richardson spoke about the series from her point of view, “It’s not the way we wanted to finish off the season for sure and we got swept, I can’t say we have them the first two games but this one they definitely beat us fair and square. We looked weak today I also think that the situation with the missiles might have played a little part in it but they came out with energy and we didn’t come out with any and it showed. We came into the playoffs having not lost any games and we came in to make a statement along with winning the State Cup, you can’t take that away from us and hopefully we will come back stronger next season.”

Jessica Jackson and Eden Rotberg scored at will for Elitzur Ramle as the first quarter got underway while Stasha Carey responded for Hapoel Lev Jerusalem but the hosts grabbed an early 16-9 lead midway through the period. Breanna Richardson started to find the basket for the Reds, Angela Tompkins responded for the yellow-and-black as did Yarden Gutt from deep to give Ramle a 26-13 lead after ten minutes of play.

Jennie Simms scored her first points of the game to lead off the second quarter, Tzili Vaturi drilled home a pair of corner 3-balls while Daniel Raber added two layups to bump the Ramle advantage up to 44-23 at halftime.

Raber opened up the third quarter with a deuce and Simms added a triple, Noor Kayuf went from deep but Raber put in another layup, Vaturi and Rotberg went from downtown, Alyssa Baron and Carey tried to keep the score respectable but Simms added more insult to injury for Danny Gutt’s squad as they ended the frame up 66-44 after thirty minutes of action.

Jackson scored for Ramle, Richardson did the same for Jerusalem as the fourth quarter got underway, Rotberg went from downtown, Carey added points for Limor Peleg’s team, but Jackson with a triple and Rotberg with a deuce quelled any thoughts if a Jerusalem comeback as Ramle took home their third Israeli league champion in a row.