Hapoel Galil Elyon thumped Hapoel Haifa 87-69 as Shachar Amir returned to action with a vengeance as the Israeli guard scored a career high 20 points to pace the hosts to the victory. I Rawle Alkins with 18 points and Marcus Carr with 17 points helped head coach Guni Izraeli’s squad cruise to the win while Jon Davis scored 17 points for the Carmel Reds in the loss.

“It wasn’t easy as we were only up 6-8 points and we had a tough time building up the lead,” Hapoel Galil Elyon Head Coach Guni Izraeli said. “We finally were able to do it when we stopped their running game. For us once we were able to run that is what opened up the game. We want to take quick shots as that is how modern basketball is played.”

Elitzur Netanya crushed Kiryat Ata 84-64 as Carlos Marshall’s 17 points led the way in the dominant win that saw 5 of Idan Avshalom’s players score in double figures. Along with Marshall, Eric Romero and Bryce Washington each scored 13 points in the victory while Chris Smith scored 15 points in the loss.

“I feel that we were playing as a basketball team for the first time with 4 import players that we wanted here and while we have been talking about a process we are getting closer and closer to where we want to be as a team,” Netanya Head Coach Idan Avshalom said.

“We didn’t play well offensively and without Raz Adam we knew we would have a problem, We just weren’t good enough on the attack in this game. We need to really take a good look at ourselves,” Eldad Bentov, Kiryat Ata’s bench boss explained.