Hapoel Gilboa Galil defeated Maccabi Ramat Gan 83-79 to pick up their second win in a row in Israeli league play. Both teams came out playing run and gun basketball as Isaiah Miles, Kendale McCullum and Amin Stevens paced Maccabi Ramat Gan while Ben Moore, Niv Misgav and Gur Lavie did the same for Hapoel Gilboa Galil with the hosts holding a 44-42 lead at halftime. Darius Perry and Ish El-Amin started to make an impact on the game in the second half for the visitors, Stevens and Miles continued to pace Shmulik Brenner’s team, but Misgav hit his free throws down the stretch and Elijah Childs dunked to close out the win for Sharon Avrahami’s squad.

Lavie scored 15 points, Misgav added 14 points and 12 assists and Darius Perry chipped in with 13 points in the win. Stevens scored 22 points and Isaiah Miles scored 16 points in the loss.

“We knew that we were heading in to play a tough team on the road,” Gilboa Galil Head Coach Sharon Avrahami began. “We didn’t start off the game well but we went to a smaller lineup in the second half and we were able to take the win down the stretch.”

“We had to be ready for a team that was going to come in and play aggressive basketball.” Ramat Gan Head Coach Shmulik Brenner said. “They pushed us around and we had to be mentally stronger than we were. We fought hard but it wasn’t enough down the stretch.”

Elijah Childs reflected on the win, “This was a hard fought game by both teams but we locked in the second half on defense. As for me, I’m settling in to Israel and I’m adjusting to the league.”

Roi Huber spoke about the game that was, “This was not a good game from us and we didn’t play our way. We lost the momentum in the second half and they took the win. There was pressure of course and we had to win this game, but that’s sports.”

Bnei Herzliya slipped by Hapoel Jerusalem 68-66 in a game that saw Jimmy Clark once again come up big to help the hosts to the win. Yehu Orland’s team led for the majority of the game and controlled the pace of play throughout the contest as Clark and Xavier Sneed picked up the scoring load while Josh Hawley put in points down the stretch to help Herzliya to the victory. Jerusalem shot an abysmal 19/39 for 27.5% while Jared Harper who led the team in scoring with 19 points shot only 4/17 from the field in the defeat.

Clark scored 19 points ad Sneed added 17 points in the win while Harper scored 19 points and Jeremy Morgan chipped in with 11 points in the loss.

“Defensively we did an amazing job,” Herzliya bench boss Yehu Orland said. “We took it a little personally when they said that we an an offensive team not one that is defensive, so we showed that we could play defense. On the other side of the coin, we weren’t able to run, Jerusalem completely stopped our running game and they did an amazing job stopping us.”

“There was a good atmosphere and a good game,” Jerusalem head coach Yonatan Alon said. “But it’s a shame that we not only lost but Yovel Zoosman is injured as well as Noam Dovrat ad Chris Johnson. It’s a shame that we’re losing players. Herzliya came in very aggressive, on the verge of brutality. The players are under a lot of duress and playing a lot of minutes, they can’t even make a substitution in practice so they can rest and that naturally causes a decline in their ability.”