Hapoel Haifa picked up their first win of the season with a 93-77 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv. The Carmel Reds started out strong as Scottie James and Kadeem Allen ran all over Hapoel Tel Aviv in the first half. However, Danny Franco’s squad answered the bell in the third quarter and came all the way back thanks to strong play by Dewan Hernandez and J’Covan Brown to pull to within 56-54 midway through the frame. But that was as close as the Tel Aviv Reds would get as Elad Hasin’s team turned on the attack with Amit Simhon and Gregory Vargas leading the way to close out the 16-point victory.

James scored 23 points and grabbed 8 boards, Simhon added 21 points, while Kadeem Allen chipped in with 14 points and 5 assists in the win. Brown led the way for Tel Aviv with 17 points, Hernandez added 15 points and JP Tokoto scored 12 points in the loss.

“I was very aggressive with the players this week and as to how they were going to approach the game,” Hasin said following the game. “I have to give them a lot of credit. The staff as well deserves this result, everyone did a great job. Our practices were intense and we translated that onto court and into the game itself.”

Amit Simhon also spoke about the win, “I think we played well and were able to show our effort on the floor. Every game a player here can step up and today it was me. We really prepared for this game after last week’s loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv and we made sure to play aggressively to take the win.”

“We stuck to our game plan,” leading scorer Scottie James said. “Coach did a good job as to where we should find our spots but we really started off strong. I tried to let the game come to me and the guards found me where I could score. We have to keep improving every day and we aren’t hanging our heads. We came out and showed our toughness this game.”