Hapoel Jerusalem defeated Hapoel Holon 70-68 to take a 2-0 stranglehold lead in their quarterfinal series. JaCorey Williams set the tone early for the reds while Justin Smith countered for the purples throughout the 40 minutes of action, but it was Khadeen Carrington who made the difference at the end of the game to hand the visitors for the win.

Williams scored 19 points, Carrington added 13 points and Noam Dovrat scored 8 points in the win. Justin Smith scored 30 points and Drew Crawford added 14 points in the loss.

“Holon is a team that gave us a tough time and they fought and battled hard,” Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon said. “We have to learn how to deal with their aggressiveness, they have four big forwards who can defend any position so they were able to make our lives difficult. We have to figure out a way to make our lives much easier.”

“Our defensive strategy and game plan really worked out,” Holon bench boss Amit Sherf said. “Although we could have put Williams on the line a bit more but it’s not that easy to do in the paint. We gave up a couple of late 3-pointers which were tactical errors and that changed the momentum of the game. We will do everything we can on Sunday to keep this series going.”

Khadeen Carrington reflected on the win, “It’s playoff time and it’s an ugly W but I’ll take that over a loss any day. Everybody contributed and congrats to the guys and coaching staff. It’s tough in such a hostile environment, we can’t relax even if it’s 2-0 and if we take out foot off the gas they can win. It’s playoff time and that’s when guys switch their mentality. It’s do or die, there is no tomorrows in the playoffs and Sunday may be like that too.”

Shachar Amir who won the Most Improved Player Award, spoke about the game that was, “We were there and we feel that we are still at the level where we can compete despite not having such a deep squad. Tomorrow is a new day and we will come back to try and do something very special. We have to believe and we all want to do it.”

Yovel Zoosman fed JaCorey Williams for a high flying alley-oop to get the game rolling for Hapoel Jerusalem, Drew Crawford went from deep and Justin Smith put in a 3-point play for Hapoel Holon, Williams added a pair of layups while Smith countered, Noam Dovrat went from the inside and outside, Shachar Amir knocked down a corner 3-ball and Khadeen Carrington scored a layup to knot the score up at 17-17 after ten minutes of play.

Williams and Or Cornelius opened the second quarter with baskets, Misgav responded, Speedy Smith went from deep and Alex Tyus dunked to put the reds in front 26-21 with 5:29 left in the half. Nimrod Levi scored uncontested in the paint, Shawn Dawson and Smith both scored turnaround jumpers, Deondre Burns added a deuce, Levi Randolph hit a jumper but Dawson came back with a triple to cut the advantage down to 32-31 at halftime.

Justin Smith and Netanel Artzi began the third quarter with points, Speedy Smith and Yovel Zoosman responded, Randolph and Williams also scored for Yonatan Alon’s team but Justin Smith kept scoring as his 3-point play knotted the score up at 40-40 midway through the period. Carirngiton and Zoosman found ten bottom of the basket for the reds, Crawford nailed a 3-pointer, Dovrat did the same at the other end while Carrington scored as well and then hit a triple at the buzzer to give Jerusalem a 53-48 lead after thirty minutes of action.

Williams and Justin Smith traded baskets to get the fourth quarter underway, Williams added two more buckets, Smith came back again with points, Crawford stole the ball and dropped a deuce to cut ten score to 60-57 with 5:44 remaining in regulation time. Levi and Carrington scored for the visitors, Artzi, Crawford and Smith for the hosts, Carrington scored a pair from the free throw line, Justin Smith dunked and then went 1/2 from the line as Jerusalem wrapped up the 70-68 win.