Hapoel Jerusalem crushed Elitzur Netanya 98-74 as Yovel Zoosman, Khadeen Carrington and Jared Harper along with Justin Smith who returned after being out for a couple of months with an injury led a well balanced attack to give Yonatan Alon’s team the win.

Shachar Doron came out on fire from deep as Kyler Edwards also scored to give Elitzur Netanya an early lead, but red hot Yovel Zoosman along with Khadeen Carrington began to fill the basket. Bryce Washington and Carlos Marshall tried to keep Idan Avshalom’s team close, however, Jared Harper and Jeremy Morgan gave the Reds a 62-41 advantage at halftime.

Harper, Justin Smith and Gaby Chachashvili kept scoring at will over the course of the third quarter while Egor Koulechov and Zoosman added points as well from beyond the arc as Jerusalem ran away with the win.

Zoosman scored 19 points, Carrington added 15 points and Smith scored 12 points in the win while Edwards and Doron each scored 17 points in the loss.

“We were consistent on both sides of the ball for many minutes,” Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon said. “It wasn’t an easy game and they were very intense, they may be young but they know what they are doing. We played right and made the correct decisions, I am very content about Justin’s performance and Zoosman is a great player who always demands more for himself. Koulechov did exactly what he was supposed to do and are very happy about his addition.”

“I told the guys what I thought about how they played at half-time,” a throughly disappointed Netanya coach Idan Avshalom said. “I chose not to play a couple of players in the second half. We have built something up here for 6 years and we didn’t do what are important for us including body language and these are the things we really worked on for years and it just wasn’t here in this game.”

Justin Smith spoke about getting back onto the court and the secret of Jerusalem’s success, “It was a long time, 2-2.5 months and I just put my head down and got to the rehab, it was a lot of work and I am glad we got out of here with a win. I felt pretty good and felt a rhythm, my teammates made the game easy for me and it’s something to build on going forward. We have a bunch of good guys and we are an unselfish group.”

Maccabi Ramat Gan slipped past Hapoel Afula 85-82 as Amin Stevens, Roi Huber and Drew Crawford came up huge as the game came down to wire to take the win at Zisman Hall.

J’Covan Brown and Justyn Mutts paced Hapoel Afula early on but Kendale McCullum and Amin Stevens helped Maccabi Ramat Gan storm back to take a slim 47-46 lead at halftime. Jalen Leque began finding the basket to put the visitor in the lead but Stevens, Roi Huber and Drew Crawford hit huge baskets down the stretch to give the hosts the 3-point win.

Stevens scored 25 points, McCullum added 21 points, Crawford scored 13 points while Huber put in 11 points, dished out 10 assists and pulled down 8 boards in the win. Brown scored 26 points and Leque scored 16 points and Mutts out in 15 points in the loss.

“This was a very good win for us and it was even bigger than our win against Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Winner Cup,” Ramat Gan Head Coach Shmulik Brenner said. “We saw leadership from a number of players including Roi Huber. There are a lot of things that we are happy about, from our focus all the way until the end of the game and the decision making while there are things we can improve on including our intensity for the entire 40 minutes.”