Hapoel Jerusalem slipped by Maccabi Ramat Gan 102-100 as Khadeen Carrington came up huge in overtime to give the Reds a stranglehold 2-0 series lead. Kendale McCullum and Amin Stevens set the tone early on while Jared Harper and Khadeen Carrington kept the game close as the hosts took a 48-42 advantage at halftime.

Austin Wiley started to make an impact but so did Drew Crawford as McCullum continued to fill the basket, but Justin Smith countered Carrington and Harper hit the game tying triple to send the game into overtime all tied up at 87-87. In the extra session, Carrington carried the Reds but Crawford kept it close, however his potential winner came up short with seconds to go as Jerusalem took the victory.

Carrington scored 22 points while Smith and Harper added 16 points each in the win. McCullum scored 31 points as Feazell and Stevens each scored 18 points a piece in the loss.

“We knew a day before that Amin Stevens was going to be there and he’s very good we were able to play him well but he still did damage,” Hapoel Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon began. “In the playoffs every game has its own life and you have to play toogh every minute of the game. We have seen this all over Europe and even though we made so many mistakes and missed so many free throws we were still able to win.”

“I told the guys that we really played 180 degrees from last week’s game,” Maccabi Ramat Gan Head Coach Shmulik Brenner said. “We showed that we could be there. I’m very proud of them but I have to take off my hat especially to Amin Stevens who played so hard after coming back from the injury that he had. He put it all out for us.”

Kendale McCullum spoke about the tough defeat, “We responded well after last week and I’m proud of my teammates and staff making a big adjustment in game two. We had the game but it didn’t go our way, that’s the beauty of the game you never know. We are both good teams and it’s too bad that we were leading all game and at the end it just didn’t go our way.”

Nimrod Levi looked back at the game that was, “We knew they would come in very aggressive and it would be a totally different game than the first one. There were many minutes where we didn’t have the right energy and while we prepared for that we still had some issues with dealing with them. But at the end of the day we were able to take the win.”

Nimrod Levi scored on the inside and outside to get things underway for Hapoel Jerusalem, Kendale McCullum responded with a trio of baskets for Maccabi Ramat Gan, Jared Harper went from deep as Amin Stevens put in points to give the hosts a 13-8 lead midway through the first quarter. Chris Johnson scored off the glass and Jeremy Morgan added points, McCullum knocked down a corner 3-ball, Keyshawn Feazell threw down a nasty dunk and Khadeen Carrington went for a pair from deep but Ramat Gan stayed in front 22-20 after ten minutes of play.

McCullum dialled up long distance to begin the second quarter, Stevens put in a pair of baskets, Adam Ariel went from deep, Noam Dovrat put in a deuce and Drew Crawford drained a triple, as Carrington fed Smith for an alley-oop, Feazell went from downtown, Yovel Zoosman drilled home a corner 3-ball, while McCullum and Harper traded baskets to end the half with Shmulik Brenner’s team ahead 48-42.

Levi started the third quarter with points, Feazell put in a 3-point play, Austin Wiley began to score with a trio of buckets, Crawford went from the inside and outside as did McCullum, Smith put in points while Roi Huber and Dovrat traded triples to end the period with the hosts still up 70-63 after thirty minutes of action.

Stevens went in for a power layup to get the fourth quarter underway, Huber came back with a layup of his own, while Smith, Morgan and Carrington all scored while McCullum and Feazell came back with points to keep Ramat Gan in front 78-77 with five minutes remaining in regulation time. Ariel knocked down a 3-pointer but then went out with five fouls, Feazell scored in the paint, Carrington put in a 3-point play as Harper drilled home a corner 3-ball to tie the game up and send it to overtime all knotted up at 87-87.

Carrington and Stevens traded points inside to begin the extra session, Carrington again found the bottom of the basket but Stevens hit a pair of free throws to keep the game all even at 91-91. Harper drained a 3-pointer but so did Feazell, Zoosman went in for a layup, Carrington scored from beyond the arc as did Crawford, but the same Crawford missed the potential game winner with 4 seconds left as Jerusalem escaped with the win and 2-0 series lead.