Hapoel Jerusalem downed Nes Ziona 94-89 as Austin Wiley starred down the stretch to help the reds take the comeback win. Bryce Brown came out on fire as he paced Nes Ziona early, Nimrod Levi and Justin Smith countered for Jerusalem, Wiley and Justin Smith made an impact inside while so did Jerome Meyinsse and Ricky Lindo but the reds took a 52-49 advantage into halftime.

Or Cornelius and Yovel Zoosman began to make their mark for the hosts while Lindo, Brown and Jake Van Tubbergen gave the visitors the lead but Wiley scored in bunches and Roi Huber iced the game as Jerusalem chalked up the victory. Wiley scored 18 points while Levi and Zoosman scored 13 points each as Brown scored 21 points, Van Tubbergen put in 16 points and Lindo chipped in with 14 points.

Shai Olerarczyk, the Reds’ assistant coach, spoke about what the team’s focus will be on now, “We’re already starting to prepare for the playoffs and this game is already behind us. We need to be more focussed during this stage of the season and we have to make sure we know what we want from ourselves. We need to find a way to finish off games like this one ad I believe that in the playoffs we will see a difference. Maccabi Ramat Gan is a very tough team and we will need to know how to deal with them.”

Nes Ziona’s head coach Amit Sherf will now turn his sights onto finding a way into the playoffs, “We have the Play-in on Saturday and if we have to play five import players then we’ll play five. If we manage to advance to the quarterfinals then anything can happen.”

Or Cornelius spoke about what his team is looking forward to, “Now the focus is on the playoffs and that’s what is important right now. We went through the regular season with a lot of injuries as well as many flights. Now it’s time to really work hard as we are only playing in Israel.”

Maccabi Tel Aviv dropped Kiryat Ata 93-80 as Oded Katash’s team clinched home court advantage throughout the playoffs with the victory. Kiryat Ata got off to a fast start as KeAndre Cook and JJ Kaplan found points early and often while Levi Randolph and Rokas Jokubaitis responded for Maccabi Tel Aviv but the visitors took a 48-43 advantage into halftime.

However, in the second half it was all yellow-and-blue as Jokubaitis took the bull by the horns along with Roman Sorkin and Levi Randolph to jet past the visitors over the final twenty minutes to take the win. Jokubaitis scored 23 points, Randolph added 18 points and Sorkin scored 15 points in the win while Cook scored 26 points and Silvo De Sousa scored 14 points in the loss.

Maccabi head coach Oded Katash spoke about having home advantage throughout the playoffs, “It’s very important. You could see how critical this was the previous two years and you can;t take it for granted in such a grueling season. The league is strong and everyone has gotten stronger.”

“We went back to our bad habit of committing turnovers and our free throw percentage was poor,” Kiryat Ata Head Coach Eldad Bentov began. “Against Maccabi Tel Aviv, if you don’t have a perfect day, it’s very difficult to win. If we don’t come together and battle – we’ll have a serious problem and right now there are too many players who are only thinking about themselves. We’ll solve this problem among ourselves but some are thinking about their minutes and not just the team so we’ll have to make it clear what the priorities are. I don’t like to name names, we’ll solve the problems internally and come into the relegation playoffs prepared.”

The game MVP Rokas Jokubaitis said, “We knew the price of the win, we should play the defense of the 2nd half from the beginning. I know the price of these games, of the championship and I think it will be even bigger than the Euroleague. This is what Maccabi is about – about the titles. They told me it’s the biggest club in Israel and we need to prove that. We have 1st place and home court advantage. Will I be here next year for me at Maccabi? Yes.”