Hapoel HaEmek defeated Nes Ziona 88-83 as Kyler Edwards, Niv Misgav and Elijah Childs paced the hosts to the win and moved their record to 9-2. HaEmek had the hot hand from beyond the arc to get the game going as Cameron Henry hit a pair while Kyler Edwards, Niv Misgav, Elijah Childs and Rafi Menco all went from deep as Isaiah Whitehead, Spencer Weisz and TJ Cline tried to keep pace from deep, but the hosts took a 29-27 lead after ten minutes of play. Childs, Edwards along with Adam Smith and Lucas Goldenberg kept scoring for Sharon Avrahami’s team while Jackson Rowe, Desi Rodriguez and Bryce Brown responded for Amit Sherf’s team but HaEmek stayed in front 48-43 at halftime.

Goldenberg, Misgav and Edwards kept finding the bottom of the basket while Whitehead countered for the visitors to bump up the lead to 68-55 after thirty minutes of action, Rodriguez started to score in bunches to cut the lead down to 5 points but it wasn’t enough as HaEmek hit their free throws down the stretch to close out the victory. Edwards scored 22 points, Childs scored 16 points and Misgav put in 15 points in the win while Rodriguez scrod 20 points and Rowe scored 13 points in the loss.

Sharon Avrahami spoke about the win, “We were very concerned about this game and didn’t have Kadin Shedrick for this game. We went with a 10 man rotation and we had to really work hard defensively but we were able to take the win.”

Amit Sherf reflected on the loss, “We weren’t good enough and when they started hitting their 3-pointers, some of which were very tough, we had to change our game plan. As for Jackson Rowe who just joined us, he will bring a lot to the table and will be able to help us along the way.”