Hapoel Gilboa Galil downed Nes Ziona 91-83 to in the 7th-8th place Play In to advance to the Israel Basketball League playoffs where they will face Hapoel Tel Aviv in the quarterfinals. The hosts jumped out to an early lead as Jerome Meyinsse, Bryce Brown and Jake Van Tubbergen helped Amit Sherf’s squad to the lead but Niv Misgav, Gur Lavy along with Ish El-Amin and Josh Price propelled Sharon Avrahami’s team to a 4th quarter comeback to take the victory.

Nes Ziona will have one last chance to punch their ticket to the postseason when they host Hapoel Beer Sheva on Monday night at 9:05pm for 8th place and a quarterfinal date with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Misgav scored 22 points, Lavy added 20 points while El-Amin and Price each scored 14 points in the win. Brown and Van Tubbergen both cored 18 points as Lindo and Meyinsse each added 14 points in the loss.

Gur Lavy got things rolling for Hapoel Gilboa Galil while Jerome Meyinsse scored for Nes Ziona but a triple by Niv Misgav at the end of the first quarter gave the visitors a 28-20 lead after ten minutes. Josh Price began filling the basket for Sharon Avrahami’s team while Meyinsee and Yair Kravitz responded as Bryce Brown and Ricky Lindo also scored for Amit Sherf’s squad to put them in front 48-43 by halftime.

Ish El-Ami and Elijah Childs tried to cut into the lead but Lindo and Jake Van Tubebergen kept Nes Ziona ahead as Alon Drucker and Bryce Brown also scored but a Lavy triple to end the third quarter kept Gilboa close but down 70-66 after thirty minutes of action. Van Tubbergen and Lavy traded baskets, Misgav added points from deep, Brown matched him, El Amin went from downtown as did Misgav yet again and Lavy added more points to close out the win.

Gur Lavy spoke about the victory that sent them into the postseason, “We’ve had a lot of games this season that we lost by a big margin but we knew how to put our foot on the gas at the right moment. We know it’s money time and I’ll take on what the game brings but also I’ll try to take on more, I’m a central part of the team. Everyone was great and we’re very happy about this victory.”
As for the upcoming quarterfinal series with Hapoel Tel Aviv, Lavy was optimistic about his team’s chances against the EuroCup champions, “We have two advantages in the series against Hapoel. First of all, we’re an underdog, we like to be in this situation and we’ll come to bite. The second thing is that the previous game at Yad Eliyahu against them ended in defeat for us, we don’t want to repeat that again. Anything can happen in the playoffs, we’ll come to give it our all.”

Hapoel Beer Sheva defeated Hapoel Galil Elyon 77-64 in the 9th-10th place Play In Game to punch their ticket to the final chance game for 8th place where they will play at Nes Ziona for a spot in the postseason and a date with Maccabi Tel Aviv in the quarterfinals.

Iverson Molinar and Cody Demps scored for Hapoel Beer Sheva while Rawle Alkins, Lenard Freeman and DJ Kennedy countered for Hapoel Galil Elyon who took a 34-33 advantage into halftime. Justin McKoy started to heat up while Spencer Weisz also scored to give Rami Hadar’s team the lead as Alkins and Lior Carreira tried to keep Guni Izraeli’s team close, but Molinar and Demps scored at will down the stretch to seal the win.

Demps scored 17 points as McKoy and Molinar each scored 16 points in the win. Alkins scored 21 points and Carreira added 13 points in the loss.

“We had to match up to they aggressiveness and we weren’t able to do that in the first half,” Hapoel Beer Sheva Head Coach Rami Hadar said. “We did some different things as well in the second half which was on the pick and roll and we started to run. We played Nes Ziona a while ago and they are a bit different than the last time we faced them but we will be ready with our system of play.”

“I’m proud of the guys although we are also disappointed,” Galil Elyon Head Coach Guy Izraeli said. “We didn’t want to end the season like this. We have a lot of mixed feelings but we were also able to go back and finish the regular season in Kfar Blum. Marcus Carr was really missing for us and our shots just didn’t go in. This was a tough season to play a lot of it without a home court.”