Hapoel Jerusalem just got by Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion 100-93 in overtime as Khadeen Carrington hit the game tying 3-pointer at the end of the regulation while Justin Smith and Jared Harper scored in money time and stopped a red hot Khalil Ahmad to take the hard earned victory.

Qua Grant and Khalil Ahmad were hot early on to spur Rishon on a 17-2 run and take a 24-23 lead after the opening period but Roi Huber, Yovel Zoosman and Cassius Winston hit their shots to give Jerusalem a 45-38 advantage at halftime. JJ Kaplan and Jared Harper each hit a trio of triples while Khadeen Carrington sent the game into overtime with a 3-pointer to tie the contest out at 86-86. In the extra session it was all Jerusalem as Justin Smith put in a pair of baskets while Jared Harper hit his shots from the line to close out the win.

Harper scored 18 points and Zoosman added 17 points for the reds while Ahmad scored 32 points and Kaplan put in 16 points for the wine city squad.

Yovel Zoosman went from the inside and outside for Hapoel Jerusalem while Qua Grant scored in bunches as Amin Stevens and Khalil Ahmad also found points for Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion as they went on a 17-2 run, Roi Huber responded with a pair from deep and a deuce but the hosts stayed in front 24-23 after ten minutes of play.

Huber and Grant traded baskets to begin the second quarter, Zoosman knocked down a corner 3-ball and Cassius Winston went for a pair from downtown, Ahmad dropped two consecutive buckets, Smith scored in the paint, Austin Wiley dunked and scored inside to give the reds a 45-38 halftime advantage.

Burns and Ahmad scored for Sharon Drucker’s team while Wiley and Carrington countered for Yonatan Alon’s squad, JJ Kaplan drained a trio of triples and added a deuce while Harper also hit three 3-pointers, Ahmad went from deep, Winston put in a layup and DJ Burns score at the buzzer to cut the Jerusalem lead to 69-68 after thirty minutes if action.

Josh Freund and Ahmad started off the final frame with points, Zoosman went from beyond the arc, Kaplan and Stevens put in points, Grant and Harper traded triples as Carrington went from deep to knot the game up and head to overtime. Ahmad scored a pair of baskets, Zoosman came back from deep, Smith put in a pair of baskets while Harper closed the game out from the line.

Hapoel Jerusalem Head Coach Yonatan Alon spoke about the tough victory, “We scored 100 points against a team that gave us a tough time and we need to continue to improve. As for the game tying 3-points, we were about to lose and I saw how they were defending Harper where they were going to have two guys on his and we went to Carrington who was wide open and he hit it. It was incredible.”

“This was a tough loss for us,” Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion Head Coach Sharon Drucker began. “We were there and we wanted to win but we just came up short before the overtime period. We were naive or didn’t have the experience and we needed to make one stop. Once we went into the overtime we were exhausted. We proved that we were there and we gave to do that from game to game. We did it all here but got the result we wanted.”

Yovel Zoosman spoke about the win, “This was very close for us to lose this game and if Carrington didn’t hit that 3-pointer we would have lost. We gave to do things a bit better than we did here and we have to have less ups and downs and need to play level baketeball. Our opponents will always play us tough as they will with every big team.”

JJ Kaplan also spoke about the game, “That was a tough one and we will have tough time going to sleep on this one. We have a lot to learn and we have a lot to show and a lot to give, we have fighters on this team and we will keep going.”