Hapoel Jerusalem downed Hapoel Tel Aviv 92-77 as Khadeen Carrington carried the capital city reds to the victory and sent the Euroleague side to their first defeat of the Israeli league season at Yad Eliyahu. Yonatan Alon’s team played Dimitrios Itoudis squad tight over the opening quarter and went on to take a 40-36 lead at halftime and Carrington and Jared Harper controlled the pace of play early on. Chris Jones, Elijah Bryant and Dan Oturu tried to find a way to put the hosts in front, but Cassius Winston, Justin Smith and Nimrod Levi scored key baskets to help the visitors to the victory.

Carrington scored 20 points, Harper added 17 points, Smith scored 16 points and Winston put in 15 points in the win. Bryant, Jones and Tomer Ginat all scored 12 points in the loss.

Yonatan Alon spoke about the win, “This was a good game from us and we are ready for the next challenge ahead coming up this week. There are many reasons why sometimes we lose and we also win. We gave to look at certain things which could be dynamics or just starting off well.”

Hapoel Tel Aviv Head Coach Dimitrios Itoudis spoke about the loss, “The team came to fight and we came back in the game when we were down, the twenty turnovers hurt us a lot we are not playing consistently right now like many teams right now. We are going to work a lot and get through this period.”

Khadeen Carrington reflected on the victory, “Great game, great game from top to bottom, everyone from the team came in ready, everyone played their part. Coach challenged me a couple of weeks ago and he said I was playing hard and it was a challenge.”

Elijah Bryant spoke about the defeat, “We lost the game, we came out with some fight but they were the better team and we will learn from in and move on. They have good players and we have to play better defense as they also have talented players. There were a lot of fouls called and it seemed like a record, I think we can all do a better job.”

Khadeen Carrington and Jared Harper scored for Hapoel Jerusalem while Elijah Bryant and Yam Madar did the same for Hapoel Tel Aviv to begin the game, Anthony Lamb went from the outside and inside while Johnathan Motley did the same, but a Chris Jones bucket gave the hosts a 20-18 lead after ten minutes.

Jones and Dan Oturu got to work in the second quarter, Cassius Winston and Harper both went from deep, Bar Timor hit a jumper and Harper went from beyond the arc and Yovel Zoosman drilled home a corner 3-ball to give the visitors a 40-36 advantage at halftime.

Carrington and Oturu traded baskets to get the third quarter underway, Palatin went from deep and Oturu dunked, Madar and Nimrod Levi went from long distance at either end of the floor, Tomer Ginat put in a 3-point play and Smith dunked as the pace picked up for both teams as Jerusalem stayed in front 52-51 midway through the period.

Smith and Winston filled the basket while Bryant and Ginat responded, Roi Huber and Antonio Blakeney traded triples, Winston and Jones did the same as Yonatan Alon’s squad stayed ahead 66-62 after thirty minutes of action.

Wiley and Winston combined for an alley-oop to start off the fourth quarter Jones and Blakeney scored, Carrington drained a 3-pointer and added a floater, Smith dunked, Levi dialled up long distance, Harper put in a layup and Carrington dunked to close out the win.

Also in Israeli league action, Maccabi Rishon Le’Zion defeated Hapoel Holon 78-70 Amin Stevens (22p) and Khalil Ahmad (18p) helped lead Guy Kaplan’s team to their 4th league win in a row. In the third quarter of the game, Todd Withers lost consciousness after a tough hit to the head following a DJ Burns basket that sent the purples forward to the hospital where he regained consciousness and is now recovering.