Hapoel Holon crushed Elitzur Netanya 97-64 as the purples took a double-digit lead by halftime thanks to tremendous play form Elijah Mitrou-Long while Marcus Bingham scored at will in the third quarter to put away the game.

Bingham scored 18 points, Mitrou-Long added 17 points and Netanel Artzi scored 14 points in the win while Eric Romero scored 12 points and Carlos Marshall put in 10 points in the loss.

Holon head coach Guy Goodes discussed the victory, “After last game against Jerusalem on the road, one that no one enjoyed from the fans to management we knew that we needed to bring more energy and to play together. We saw some good things in this game as to how and why this team was put together. We are continuously working on this and while it was nice to see dunks and showtime we have to make sure we translate that to the future games as well.”

“We weren’t in the game from the start of it and we just didn’t show up,” Netanya coach Idan Avshalom said. “Holon at their home is a tough game and we had to come in ready which we just didn’t. We need to know how to play in these games and in this arena where there were 2,000 fans that amiss it feel like there is over 5,000.”

Netanel Artzi spoke about the keys to the win, “Netanya is a very young team with energy and we had to bring our game right away, this was our first game back at home and we felt that. We needed the fans and they helped us on the court. We have a long season ahead and we need to bring this type of energy every single game.”

Carlos Marshall reflected on the defeat, “Holon played really well and together with a lot of energy. We did as well but we needed to prolong that for the duration of the game. We could have been more aggressive but a bit of a shoulder problem for me and I’m not making up any excuses hurt the team.”

Elijah Mitrou-Long and Netanel Artzi got Hapoel Holon off to a good start as Carlos Marshall and Eric Romero countered for Elitzur Netanya but more points from Mitrou-Long gave the purples a 28-17 lead after ten minutes of play. Marcus Bingham started putting his mark in the game with a dunk, triple and deuce, but Itay Moskovitz, Ilya Dolinski and Marshall began to cut down the
lead, however, points from Michale Kyser and Jalen Adams gave Guy Goodes’s squad a 47-35 advantage at halftime.

Niv Misgav started off the third quarter with a pair of buckets and then fed Kyser for an alley-oop, Bingham dunked and went twice from deep while Kyser kept jamming at will to bump the lead up 76-47 after thirty minutes of action while Netanel Artzi scored at will in the final frame to help Holon to the win.

Hapoel Galil Elyon downed Nes Ziona 76-74 ans Lukas Goldenberg hit the key 3-pointer down the stretch to hand the Galilee side the win. Marcus Carr scored 18 points, Rawle Alkins added 17 points and Lennard Freeman scored 16 points in the win while Jake Van Tubbergen scored 19 points, as Bryce Brown and Ricky Lindo each scored 14 points in the loss.